How to find the North Star

Finding The North Star is a really good first step for finding your way around the sky. Once you can easily locate North, locating other objects in the sky becomes easier. On a clear night look around for the distinctive pattern of stars known as ‘The Plough’ or ‘The Big Dipper’ or ‘The Frying Pan’. Once you’ve found The Plough, use the two stars which are on the opposite side to The Plough’s handle as pointers. Go from the lower star called Marek up through the higher star called Dubhe and travel about 4 times the Marek-Dubhe distance again you should find a brightish star without any other bright stars near it.

Here is what it looks like without labels

The Plough and Polaris

Here’s the labelled version

labelled Plough and Polaris

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