Polaris which constellation

Earth rotates around this line, like a spinning top. Polaris is located quite close to the point in the sky where the north rotational axis points — a spot called the north celestial pole.

As our planet rotates through the night, the stars around the pole appear to rotate around the sky. Over the hours, these stars each sweep out a circle around the celestial pole.

The farther a star is from the pole, the larger the circle it travels around the sky. Some stars travel a great distance over the course of the night. Polaris is different. Because it's so close to the celestial pole, it traces out a very small circle over 24 hours. So Polaris always stays in roughly the same place in the sky, and therefore it's a reliable way to find the direction of north. Polaris has long been an important star to sailors, caravans of old winding their way over the desert by night and others who navigated their way by the stars.

Located almost directly overhead as seen from the North Pole, it is situated at the tip of the tail of the Little Bear, Ursa Minor and the brightest star of that constellation. Perhaps more than any star other than the Sun; Polaris has been regarded as the most important star in the heavens.

The proximity of the stars of the two bears Ursa Major and Ursa Minor to the North Celestial Pole gave the impression that they were wheeling around this point, pulling perhaps a plough behind them, tilling the heavenly fields and driven on by Bootes the Bear Driver who chases or herds the Bears around Polaris.

In past ages, whichever star held the position of Pole Star was worshipped as the star of that age and temples were built to them in ancient Egypt. Polaris is now the star of our own age.

The planet, Uranus, was discovered one degree longitude away from this star. A star is visible between the Bears Ursa Major and Ursa Minor , not changing its place, but always revolving upon itself;.

Hipparchos circa B. Miss Clerke writes as to this:. And this is not unlikely, as this inconspicuous object, for some reason, was sufficiently noteworthy among the Chinese to bear the title How Kung, the Empress. The fact that the Polaris of his day did not exactly mark the pole was noted by Pytheas, the Greek astronomer and navigator of Massilia, the modern Marseilles, about B.

But a star, being always a symbol of sanctity, was peculiarly so of the holiest of women, so that this title of the chief star of heaven was adopted as one interpretation of her Jewish name Miriam. Another earlier and much more probable origin, however, is from a title for the constellation already alluded to. Thus, as the leading star, it became the Loadstar , or Lodestar , of early English authors; Spenser saying:. The Star of Arcady either referred to Arcadia, the earthly home of Kallisto identified with Ursa Major , or to Arcas, her son identified with Ursa Minor , transferred to the skies by his father Jove, when ignorantly about to slay his mother after her transformation.

On this astronomers' scale, smaller numbers represent brighter objects, with the brightest stars and planets in the night sky at around magnitude zero or even negative magnitudes.

The North Star it is a "pulsing" star, a Cepheid variable , which appears to vary in brightness ever so slightly — only one tenth of a magnitude — over a time frame of just under four days. If you have a small telescope and train it on Polaris, you just might notice a tiny companion star called Polaris B shining at 9th magnitude with a pale bluish tint.

This companion was first sighted by Sir William Herschel in just a year later, Herschel would discover the planet Uranus. Astronomers believe that the two stars — A and B — are separated by about 2, astronomical units — one astronomical unit a.

The orbital period of the two stars may number in the many thousands of years. In , by studying the spectrum of Polaris, a third companion star Polaris C was discovered. This one, a white dwarf, lies only Its extreme closeness to the far more brilliant Polaris A explains why it went unseen for so long.

Exactly where you see Polaris in your northern sky depends on your latitude. From New York it stands 41 degrees above the northern horizon, which also corresponds to the latitude of New York.

Since 10 degrees is roughly equal to your clenched fist held at arm's length, from New York Polaris would appear to stand about "four fists" above the northern horizon. At the North Pole, you would find it overhead. At the equator, Polaris would appear to sit right on the horizon. So if you travel to the north, the North Star climbs progressively higher the farther north you go. When you head south, the star drops lower and ultimately disappears once you cross the equator and head into the Southern Hemisphere.

And always keep this fact in mind: Polaris is more accurate than any compass. A compass is subject to periodic variations and can only show you the direction of the lines of the strongest magnetic force for a particular spot and for a particular time. But even Polaris isn't positioned exactly due north.