Polaris

[Pascal]

Hi there!

I was just wondering how everyone locates Polaris, or the North Star? I've read that there are pointers in Ursa Minor, but I can't really connect them.

Any pointers?

Thanks!

P.S

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, I wasn't really sure.

[Tiddles]

Follow the edge of the big dipper (Ursula Major) in a straight line and you'll get to Polaris.

Download Stallarium, its free and a must.

You could also use a compass for reference, face magnetic north and look up.

[Nexus 6]

this may help...

[Pascal]

@Tiddles

Thank you

@Nexus

Thanks! I thought it was like that, but when I saw the Little Dipper, the star wasn't that bright, so I assumed I'd gotten it wrong.

Thanks to both of you!

[Capricorn]

Follow the edge of the big dipper (Ursula Major)

The big dipper isn't Ursa Major.

The dipper/plough is an asterism in Ursa Major.

The dipper/plough is a small bit of Ursa Major.

[Tiddles]

:iamwithstupid:I stand corrected.

[Chris H]

Polaris is not a particularly bright star.

[E621Keith]

It's reasonably bright. You can see it in the city. I can't say the same for the rest of Ursa minor.

You can also find Polaris using Cassiopeia

[JimStan]

When the transparency isn't so clear, and the bowl of the "dipper" is low in the sky or behind a house roof , I have occasionally mistaken Kochab for Polaris. You can imagine the difficulty THAT causes, when you try to polar align your scope for the night. EVERYTHING just looks ALL WRONG !

[JazzJazz]

As others have said, follow the line from Dubhe and Merak in Ursa Major and you will find it I'm fairly new to astronomy so I got really excited when I discovered this little trick out! It also stays in a relatively fixed position with it being just above the pole of the Earth but you'd have to stay outside for quite a while to notice!

[Pascal]

Ah, great. Thanks everyone! Unfortunately I haven't seen any stars for a while... except for this line of three stars. They're always there, it's weird. Never seen them before...

Yeah, no clear nights for ages

[Nexus 6]

Hi Pascal, the 3 stars you mention are probably part of the constellation of Orion, are you looking south when you see them?

[Pascal]

Hi

Oh, maybe... to be honest, I'm not really sure. I don't know which way is which where I live >_>

[kharga]

Hi

Oh, maybe... to be honest, I'm not really sure. I don't know which way is which where I live >_>

The sun rises East and sets West!

[hemihaggis]

Hi

Oh, maybe... to be honest, I'm not really sure. I don't know which way is which where I live >_>

#

i love this forum !!!!!!!

try stellarium .... please !!!

[Pascal]

Er... what's that? And how do I use it? o_o

[basher0010]

Stellarium try it for yourself..

[Skylook123]

Polaris, or alpha-Ursa Minor, is quite interesting in its own right besides being our current pole star. If you have a manual mount, such as a dobsonian or other azimuth-elevation type, or an equatorial mount with only slow mothion manual knobs, Polaris is a really valuable target for public demonstration. It is actually a five star system, although from our vantage point we generally see two stars close together. One is the bright member we see with our naked eye, and the other is a pretty little somewhat purple-blue companion. The bigger, or primary, star is actually a spectrographic double star on its own, composed of a fairly large, seven solar mass giant, and a dwarf compaion that is only as far away from the main star as Uranus is from our sun. So, at around 430 light years away, it looks like one star even in a telescope. The other star we can see, the colorful partner, is only about 1.5 solar masses. That one is about 400 billion km away from the primary it orbits. Also, the bright primary is a variable, with about a 16% variance in its brightness over a 3.97 day cycle. Best of all, with a manual mount, if you center on Polaris it doesn't move! So, the less active astronomer will point to Polaris with a telescope and use it all night as a great teaching tool:

1. It is an example of how our sun is average in most ways but one - our sun is alone. More than half the stars we see have companions.

2. The bright star, Polaris Aa, is so huge and Polaris Ab is so close, its light swamps the dimmer small partner and it takes a spectrograph to detect it.

3. The colorful partner is a teaching aid for color-temperature relationships in stars. The hotter, the bluer. Hot means much of its energy is lost in the ultraviolet, so the brightness we see with our eyes is deceiving regarding total illumination; it will appear dimmer to our eye. Same with red, cold stars; some illumination is lost in the infrared.

Lots of use for us lazy folk with dobsonian mounts; point to Polaris and not have to touch a thing all night.

[StevenG.]

Generally, Polaris is a fairly bright star in the night sky that could be viewed with the naked eye.

That is true in either a light-polluted sky or in a dark sky.

The easiest method for me is to locate the last two stars that

are found in the cup of the big dipper asterism, which has been

already mentioned here. The two stars point somewhat diagonally to the star,

so it is not exactly a straight line, mind you.

Polaris is one of three visible stars in Ursa Minor. The other stars that form the constellation are really faint, and they are best viewed in a dark sky. Won't be able to see them at all in a light-polluted area.

Happy stargazing.

[Pascal]

Thanks everyone I'll have a look for it next time there's a clear night.

[Moonshane]

Polaris, or alpha-Ursa Minor, is quite interesting in its own right besides being our current pole star. If you have a manual mount, such as a dobsonian or other azimuth-elevation type, or an equatorial mount with only slow mothion manual knobs, Polaris is a really valuable target for public demonstration. It is actually a five star system, although from our vantage point we generally see two stars close together. One is the bright member we see with our naked eye, and the other is a pretty little somewhat purple-blue companion. The bigger, or primary, star is actually a spectrographic double star on its own, composed of a fairly large, seven solar mass giant, and a dwarf compaion that is only as far away from the main star as Uranus is from our sun. So, at around 430 light years away, it looks like one star even in a telescope. The other star we can see, the colorful partner, is only about 1.5 solar masses. That one is about 400 billion km away from the primary it orbits. Also, the bright primary is a variable, with about a 16% variance in its brightness over a 3.97 day cycle. Best of all, with a manual mount, if you center on Polaris it doesn't move! So, the less active astronomer will point to Polaris with a telescope and use it all night as a great teaching tool:

1. It is an example of how our sun is average in most ways but one - our sun is alone. More than half the stars we see have companions.

2. The bright star, Polaris Aa, is so huge and Polaris Ab is so close, its light swamps the dimmer small partner and it takes a spectrograph to detect it.

3. The colorful partner is a teaching aid for color-temperature relationships in stars. The hotter, the bluer. Hot means much of its energy is lost in the ultraviolet, so the brightness we see with our eyes is deceiving regarding total illumination; it will appear dimmer to our eye. Same with red, cold stars; some illumination is lost in the infrared.

Lots of use for us lazy folk with dobsonian mounts; point to Polaris and not have to touch a thing all night.

what he said!

[todd8137]

It's been covered with the looks of it,

[Mr Moff]

I've found the easiest was for me was to put a compas on the floor in between the tripod legs so your mount points roughly north. The when I look through the polar scope it's the only star there in the field of view.

Now that I've accurately got polar alignment I've used a permanent black marker and drawn a circle on the concrete around each tripod leg.

Now I just put the mount on the targets, look through the polar scope and it's done.

[Photosbykev]

Keep looking up towards the North early in the evening and it is normally the 1st star to become visible. 54 degrees elevation (for me) is when in-line with the top bar of my glasses after I tilt my head backwards to it's 'normal' limit

[proflight2000]

If all else fails, at midday turn your body so the sun is behind you, basically the way you are facing is then north. Polaris is a great one to look for the double star, with a high powered eyepiece you can see the hidden one appear.