Where is the north star
How To Locate The North Star
I'm Robert Massey I'm here from the
Royal Astronomical Society which is one
of the biggest astronomical
organizations in the world and we look
after the interests of astronomers not
just in the UK but across the world what
I'm going to do today is give you a few
pointers to get you started in a
strongly which i think is one of the
most incredibly interesting subjects
there is
if you want to find your way around the
night sky if you're just doing it as an
amateur astronomer just wanting to enjoy
the night sky perhaps in the first time
it's really important to know where some
of the stars in the sky are and to
identify the patterns they appear to
make what we call the constellations one
of the most important stars to find
actually tells you direction as well is
the North Star or the pole star Polaris
and from the northern hemisphere it's
really quite straightforward to find you
just need one really good trick a clear
night first of all is a big plus so you
can actually see the stars but if you
look for the constellation of the plough
or in the North America the Big Dipper
just this group of stars here and these
this these seven stars here are very
recognizable to many people you know
chances are you'll have seen them at
some point in your life and you look for
this bowl shape and this handle here and
the two stars on the right-hand edge of
the bowl in my picture a doobie and
Marik and if you follow a line up from
these two or down depending it depending
on the time of year track it up about
five or six times the distance between
them you come to the pole star or
Polaris and the great thing is once
you've found the pole star if you go out
in your back garden no matter what the
time of year what the time of night it's
always more or less in the same place in
the sky because it's directly above the
North Pole of the earth so the rest of
the sky turns as it appears to turn as
the Earth turns the pole star stays
where it is
