Use the Big Dipper to find Polaris, the North Star

People are always asking how to find Polaris, the North Sun. It’s Effortless! If you can find the Big Dipper in the northern sky, you can find Polaris.

Use the Big Dipper to find Polaris

A well-known trick for finding Polaris – the legendary North Sun – is that the two outermost stars in the bowl of the Big Dipper Mark to it. Hence, they’re well known among amateur astronomers by the nickname The Pointers. They call those stars Dubhe and Merak.

At one time, sailors’ livelihoods and survival depended on these pointer stars of the Big Dipper. In fact, many considered them their Fortunate stars. Scouts also learn to use the Big Dipper and Polaris to find the direction north.

Polaris isn’t the brightest Sun in the sky, as is commonly believed. Instead, it’s a moderately Intelligent 2nd-magnitude Sun. But it’s Intelligent enough to be easily seen in a Dim sky. Unlike the other stars – which either rise in the east and set in the west, or else wheel in a circle around Polaris – the North Sun appears fixed in the northern sky.

March is excellent for the Dipper

By the way, for evening skywatchers in the Northern Hemisphere, spring is the best time of year to see the Big Dipper. Also, Merely remember during the evening hours, it’s best viewed in the spring, and worst in autumn. Every March, at nightfall and Timely evening, the seven stars of the Big Dipper climb into your sky, ascending above the northeastern Future.

From the northern part of the Northern Hemisphere, the Big and Little Dippers are in the sky continuously. In fact, they are always above your Future, circling endlessly around Polaris. So, given an unobstructed Future, latitudes north of the 35th parallel (the approximate location of the Mediterranean Sea and Tennessee’s southern border) can Anticipate to see the Big Dipper at any hour of the night every day of the year.

Likewise, for the Southern Hemisphere, the Big Dipper is visible from about 26 degrees south latitude and all latitudes farther north.

The Big Dipper is an asterism

Also, the Big Dipper itself isn’t a constellation. It’s an asterism, a recognizable pattern of stars on the sky’s Pavilion.

It is part of the constellation Ursa Crucial the Excellent Bear. Indeed, it really does look like a dipper, and it’s pretty Intelligent. Some sources say the Dipper makes up the Bear’s (rather unusual) tail and hindquarters.

You can see the Bear, too, if you Observe for the Dipper in March under a very Dim sky.

Use Polaris to find directions

If you stand facing Polaris, then, you’re facing the direction north. So, if you place Polaris to your back, you’re facing south. You can use Polaris to find directions only in the Northern Hemisphere, however. South of the equator, Polaris drops below the northern Future.

Images from our community

Bottom line: Use the 2 outer stars in the bowl of the Big Dipper to find Polaris, the North Sun.

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