4 Ursae Minoris

| b-v = 1.368

4 Ursae Minoris is a binary star system in the northern circumpolar constellation Ursa Minor. It is faintly visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude of 4.80. Based upon an annual parallax shift of as seen from Earth's orbit, it is located roughly 460 light years from the Sun. It is moving further away with a heliocentric radial velocity of +5.9 km/s.

This is a single-lined spectroscopic binary star system with an orbital period of 1.66 years and an eccentricity of 0.14. The primary is a red giant of spectral type K3-IIIb Fe-0.5, a star that has used up its core hydrogen and is expanding. The suffix notation indicates the spectrum displays a mild underabundance of iron for a star of its type. It has expanded to around 28 times the Sun's radius and is radiating 437 times the Sun's luminosity from its enlarged photosphere at an effective temperature of 4,165 K.

In Chinese astronomy, this star is named Hougong, the imperial concubine or empress. It forms the asterism Beiji (Northern Pole) with γ Ursae Minoris, β Ursae Minoris, 5 Ursae Minoris, and Σ 1694.