How To Find North Star At Night

Star chart showing Big Dipper, Little Dipper and Polaris with stars labeled. — Tonight's chart shows Polaris and the Big and Little Dippers on a September evening. Y'all can use the Big Dipper to notice Polaris, aka the Due north Star.

Use Big Dipper to observe Polaris

The northern sky is like a large celestial clock, with Polaris – aka the N Star – at its center. In other words, the entire northern sky wheels in a bang-up circumvolve throughout the dark (although information technology'south wheeling in a counter-clockwise management). But the northern star Polaris stays still (or nearly and so). That's because Earth'southward northern axis nearly points to it. And so Polaris is the famous North Star, used by sea navigators and scouts to observe the direction north. Desire to find it? You can apply the famous Big Dipper asterism to locate Polaris.

Detect that a line from the two outermost stars in the bowl of the Big Dipper points to Polaris. And notice that Polaris marks the tip of the handle of the Little Dipper. Just observe all this soon, because, in September, the Big Dipper is headed for its least noticeable time of year. The reason is that the Big Dipper swings full circle – 360 degrees – around Polaris in nigh 23 hours and 56 minutes. In 24 hours, the Large Dipper really swings more than a total circle, or 361 degrees. Does that brand a difference? Aye! It means that – if y'all await at the same time each evening – the Big Dipper will appear only a footling flake lower in the northwestern evening sky.

In other words, the Dipper is descending in the northwestern evening sky, from one night to the side by side. And that means that, a month from now at mid-evening (say around early on October) the Large Dipper will be noticeably lower in the northwest. For some months in fall, the Big Dipper is below the horizon in the evening, equally seen from the southernmost latitudes in the United States. That might be why, if yous're just learning the sky, you sometimes look for the Dipper and can't discover information technology.

Meanwhile, the Big Dipper is circumpolar, or always above the northern horizon, from more northerly latitudes. You'll find it in your sky throughout the year as seen from the northern U.S., Canada and similar latitudes.

The Dipper throughout fourth dimension

The constant motion from night to night of these stars circumvoluted Polaris is a flake like a behave circumvoluted its prey, looking for a style to attack. Several ancient cultures from the Greeks and Romans to the Mi'kmaq Indians likened these stars to a behave.

In Greek mythology, the Big Dipper asterism represents the hindquarters and tail of the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear. The Mi'kmaq saw the iii stars of the Big Dipper handle every bit hunters chasing the deport.

Picket the Big and Little Dippers circumvolve around Polaris tonight!

Four positions of Dipper: highest on spring evenings, lowest on fall evenings. — If y'all're in the northern U.Due south., Canada or at a similar latitude, the Big Dipper is circumpolar for y'all. That is, information technology's always in a higher place the horizon. This illustration shows the Big Dipper's location in the evening sky at different seasons. Image via burro.astr.cwru.edu.

Bottom line: To locate Polaris, the North Star, just depict a line betwixt the two outer stars in the bowl of the Big Dipper.

The Big and Little Dippers: All you demand to know

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Larry Sessions

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Larry Sessions has written many favorite posts in EarthSky'south Tonight expanse. He's a former planetarium director in Petty Rock, Fort Worth and Denver and an adjunct faculty member at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He'due south a longtime member of NASA's Solar System Ambassadors programme. His articles have appeared in numerous publications including Infinite.com, Sky & Telescope, Astronomy and Rolling Stone. His small volume on world star lore, Constellations, was published by Running Press.