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How to Find Polaris

It's been guiding travelers on land and sea for hundreds of years. Today, the North Star, also known as Polaris, is relatively dim, but it is easy to find if you use a few classic tricks. With a little bit of patience you'll be able to find it every time. Read on to learn how to find Polaris.

Instructions

- 1
  Find the Big Dipper in the northern sky. Use a star chart to help you if you don't easily recognize this constellation. Find a star chart online or at your local planetarium to help you read the skies.
- 2
  Remember that depending on the time of night and the time of year, the Big Dipper may appear to be upside down.
- 3
  Look at the Big Dipper and follow these directions from the perspective of it being right-side up, meaning that if the Dipper was filled with water, it would not spill out.
- 4
  Find the two stars that form the right-hand side of the dipper's bowl.
- 5
  Draw a mental line between these two stars and extend it upwards from the constellation. Remember the term up is relative.
- 6
  Follow this line until you get to a star. You have found Polaris.
- 7
  Confirm that you have indeed found the North Star by looking for the Little Dipper. If the star you are looking at is the last star in the handle of another smaller dipper, you have found it.

Astronomy