![]() ![]() The Big Dipper is part of the Ursa Major constellation and the most prominent asterism in the sky. How to find the North Star from the Big Dipper? The North Star always points due north, but depending on your latitude, its position in the sky will be higher or lower, and it will disappear from view when you reach the Southern Hemisphere. The star makes a small circle about 1.3° in diameter around the North celestial pole, though it still appears motionless to the unaided eye. It’s not exactly at the North celestial pole, but about 0.65° away, so it actually moves a little bit. The North Star is located in the constellation Ursa Minor. With the unaided eye, observers will only spot the light of the main star, a yellow supergiant Polaris A, but the other two are very similar in color. However, their yellowish hue is very faint, so most stargazers will see Polaris as a white, medium-bright star. Such stars are typically white or yellow-white in color. What color is Polaris?Īll three stars in the Polaris system are of spectral type F. You can see the more distant companion, Polaris B, even with a small telescope, but Polaris Ab is too close to the main star to be seen. Also, it is, in fact, a triple star system that contains yellow supergiant Polaris A and two smaller stars Polaris Ab and Polaris B. It means its apparent magnitude changes with time. Distance from the Earth: 132.76 parsecs or 433 light-years.Diameter: 70 million km (50 times bigger than the Sun).Luminosity: 1,260 L (2,500 times brighter than the Sun).Star type: Triple star system (yellow supergiant Polaris A, white main-sequence stars Polaris Ab and Polaris B). ![]()
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