Polaris - 99999

[tingting44]

Just looking in the year 99999 on stellarium, any clue as to why polaris is nearly due NW...?

polaris by tingting44, on Flickr

[tdmodels]

That will be due to precession.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[tingting44]

mhhh might have to google that one lol

[earth titan]

Dies Stellarium deal with precession then? If so, I'm impressed.

Typed by me on my fone, using fumms... Excuse eny speling errurs.

[Stargazer_00]

What's more funky is the shape of the constellations on there!

[tingting44]

What's more funky is the shape of the constellations on there!

Ursa minor is funky isnt it loool its fasinating seeing how everything has changed in the year 99999, the year 99999 is not even long in comparision to the cosmos! i was thinking stellarium might have took in to consideration of a polar flip where we might end up with N not being North any more lol or we might even have several north and south poles lol i was watching some doc on discovery about it the other night

[ronin]

4000-4500 years back Thuban was the pole star or polaris.

Stellarium should really have removed the designation Polaris from the star as in another 2000 years the Pole Star will be another one not ά UMinor.

Getting ά in this is a pain.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

That will be due to precession.

It is due to both precession and the relative motion of Polaris and the Sun. Stars can wander quite a long way across the sky in 98,000 years, especially those close to us. Polaris is intrinsically bright and quite a long way away, so I'd guess precession will have more effect on its position in the sky.

[cathalferris]

Polaris is the name of the star itself. not the generic name for the brightest star close to the pole.

The reason the constellation shapes are funky is because of proper motion of the nearby stars, causing those stars to move appreciably across our skies over those timescales.

I'd love if Stellarium and SkyCharts had an extra digit capability for the timescales - I think that things would look very interesting at a million years instead of a hundred thousand. I know the proper motions of the stars wouldn't be accurate enough, and probably the planet orbital elements accurate enough either but it would be good for a thought experiment anyway.