Stars · Star in Ursa Minor
Star
Polaris
The North Star. Not the brightest — about fiftieth — but the one that doesn’t move. Its height above your horizon is your latitude.
- Constellation
- Ursa Minor
- Designation
- α Ursae Minoris
- Apparent magnitude
- 1.97 · 48th brightest star in the night sky
- Spectral class
- F7:Ib-IIv SB
- Distance
- 433 light-years
- Position (J2000)
- RA 2h 32m · Dec +89° 16′
A yellow-white star, around 6,500 K, like Procyon. About 65× brighter than the faintest star the eye can see. The light you are seeing left around 1593.
Look for
Follow the Big Dipper’s Pointers five times their gap. Everything else in the northern sky wheels around it.
History
It has not always been the pole star. In 2700 BC it was Thuban, and in 14,000 AD it will be Vega.
Science
Polaris is a Cepheid variable, pulsing gently every four days, with two companions.