Polaris, better known as the North Star, has been a beacon of guidance for civilizations for thousands of years. If a person is anywhere within the Northern Hemisphere and locates Polaris within the night skies, they will be facing almost perfectly due north while viewing it. How could someone at the North Pole and someone in the Philippines just north of the equator both be facing due north when viewing Polaris? As perplexing as it seems, the science behind Polaris is fairly simple even though it generates hundreds of thousands of questions from amateur astronomers, sailors, and outdoor enthusiasts every year.
Contrary to popular belief, Polaris is not the brightest star in the northern skies, sort of. Of all the viewable stars it currently ranks 50th in brightness from our perspective, however since it is estimated at over 430 light years away it must have a luminosity of around twenty-five hundred of our suns. Since many of the stars we consider bright are much closer in perspective when compared to Polaris, it is an extremely bright star. Likewise, because of its extended distance from Earth is why we can currently use it to judge which way is north. If you placed a coin inside your bedroom and another within your kitchen then drew a straight line from each of them to your front door, in essence you would have a triangular pattern since each line is at different angels from the other. If you drew those same lines to your neighbor’s home across the street, the angles would decrease a small portion and become a bit straighter. If you drew those same two lines to the other side of the country, your lines would appear almost completely straight because the distance traveled directly relates to how parallel they are. Because Polaris is so extremely far from our location everywhere on Earth faces due north when viewing the star, and because of its brightness it is an easy target to pick out of the sky and follow.
There are several easy ways to locate Polaris, which makes up a part of the Little Dipper. Polaris is viewable year round so if the Little Dipper is not immediately spotted, it may be easier to locate the Big Dipper and use it as a reference point, since it is by far the easiest constellation to find. When looking at the Big Dipper, find the two stars that make up the outer portion of the dipper opposite the handle. These two stars are known as Merak and Dubhe, and because of the Earth’s rotation they continually rotate around Polaris twenty-four hours a day. Using these two stars, draw a straight line moving away from the top of the dipper and they will lead you directly to Polaris and the Little Dipper.
Because of the Earth’s orbit, Polaris will not always be considered the North Star. It is currently less than one degree off of true north and is slowly making its way towards perfect alignment around 2100 AD, but in the future other stars will be much closer to true north and used in Polaris’s place until it realigns with our North Pole once again.