The celestial pole will be nearest Polaris in 2100. So it appears due north in the sky to a precision better than one degree, and the angle it makes with respect to the true horizon (after correcting for refraction and other factors) is within a degree of the latitude of the observer. In 2022 Polaris' mean declination was 89.35 degrees North (at epoch J2000 it was 89.26 degrees N). Precession of the equinoxes Precession of Earth's rotational axis 'Cynosure, or the Marian Polar Star'), a collection of Marian poetry published by Nicolaus Lucensis (Niccolo Barsotti de Lucca) in 1655. Īn explicit identification of Mary as stella maris with the North Star ( Polaris) becomes evident in the title Cynosura seu Mariana Stella Polaris (i.e. The name stella polaris was coined in the Renaissance, even though at that time it was well recognized that it was several degrees away from the celestial pole Gemma Frisius in the year 1547 determined this distance as 3☈'. In the Vishnu Purana, it is personified under the name Dhruva ('immovable, fixed'). It was known as scip-steorra ('ship-star') in 10th-century Anglo-Saxon England, reflecting its use in navigation. The ancient name of Ursa Minor, anglicized as cynosure, has since itself become a term for 'guiding principle' after the constellation's use in navigation.Īlpha Ursae Minoris (Polaris) was described as ἀειφανής (transliterated as aeiphanes) meaning 'always above the horizon', 'ever-shining' by Stobaeus in the 5th century, when it was still removed from the celestial pole by about 8°. While there was no naked-eye star close to the pole, the midpoint between Alpha and Beta Ursae Minoris was reasonably close to the pole, and it appears that the entire constellation of Ursa Minor, in antiquity known as Cynosura (Greek Κυνόσουρα 'dog's tail') was used as indicating the northern direction for the purposes of navigation by the Phoenicians. In classical antiquity, Beta Ursae Minoris (Kochab) was closer to the celestial north pole than Alpha Ursae Minoris. The path of the north celestial pole among the stars due to the effect of precession, with dates shown The path of the south celestial pole among the stars due to the effect of precession History A method to find the Pole star Polaris at 5x the distance of the two front stars of the Big Dipper. Northern Hemisphere circumpolar stars around Polaris, with a long-exposure producing a star trail photoĪ pole star or polar star is a star, preferably bright, nearly aligned with the axis of a rotating astronomical body for Earth these 2 points are called the celestial poles.Ĭurrently, Earth's pole stars are Polaris (Alpha Ursae Minoris), a bright magnitude 2 star aligned approximately with its northern axis that serves as a pre-eminent star in celestial navigation, and a much dimmer magnitude 5.5 star on its southern axis, Polaris Australis (Sigma Octantis).įrom around 1700 BC until just after 300 AD, Kochab (Beta Ursae Minoris) and Pherkad (Gamma Ursae Minoris) were twin northern pole stars, though neither was as close to the pole as Polaris is now.

North star