The Pole Star

Two famous star patterns are the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper (a dipper is a ladle with a long handle). The Big Dipper is in the constellation Ursa Major; the Little Dipper is in Ursa Minor. In India the Big Dipper is known as Saptarishi.

The Pole Star (also called Polaris) is part of the Little Dipper. In India it is Dhruva tara. It appears nearly still, always in the north, so it shows us north in the Northern hemisphere. But it cannot be seen from the southern hemisphere, and it is not a very bright star.

How to find it:

• On a summer night, around 9 p.m., look towards the northern sky and find the Big Dipper.
• Look at the two stars at the end of its cup.
• Imagine a straight line through them, going north.
• At about five times the distance between those two stars, the line reaches a not-very-bright star: the Pole Star.

Because the Pole Star is faint, choose a night when neither the Moon nor clouds can be seen.