the North Star is a star that has and
continues to fascinate people hi I’m
Veronica watchmojo.com and today we’re
going to continue to discover the
mysteries of the sky with Louie
Bernstein for many years the North Star
has been used as a navigational tool why
is this the star that we use the North
Stars the one star that doesn’t move in
the sky because it sits above the
Earth’s axis of rotation as the Earth
spins the North Star stays put all the
other stars if you look at the stars
from the earth appear to revolve around
the North Star if you were standing at
the North Pole it would be straight
overhead as you move south of the North
Pole the North Star isn’t overhead
anymore but it appears over the northern
horizon and so if you sail toward the
North Star then you were heading north
since it’s so important to know where
the North Star is if you’re lost how can
we locate it in the sky one easy way is
to locate the Big Dipper
the Big Dipper is a really familiar easy
pattern of stars now the Big Dipper
points to the North Star take the two
outer stars in the bowl of the Big
Dipper and draw a line between those two
stars and follow that line up above the
pot it points toward the North Star so
it’s the myth associated with why the
North Star never changes the North Star
actually over the short term doesn’t
change but as I say it hasn’t always
been the North Star at least that star
hasn’t always been we have different
North stars over a 26,000 year cycle
because as the Earth spins the axis
waddles kind of like a child’s top
wobbles when it’s slowing down as a
result the polar axis points to
different stars or toward different
stars there are periods when there
really is no North Star I mean it’s just
a happy coincidence that right now we’re
pointing toward a star and it’s not a
very bright star at that 12 thousand
years from now the polar axis will be
pointing to Vega
one of the brightest stars in the sky
continues to fascinate people hi I’m
Veronica watchmojo.com and today we’re
going to continue to discover the
mysteries of the sky with Louie
Bernstein for many years the North Star
has been used as a navigational tool why
is this the star that we use the North
Stars the one star that doesn’t move in
the sky because it sits above the
Earth’s axis of rotation as the Earth
spins the North Star stays put all the
other stars if you look at the stars
from the earth appear to revolve around
the North Star if you were standing at
the North Pole it would be straight
overhead as you move south of the North
Pole the North Star isn’t overhead
anymore but it appears over the northern
horizon and so if you sail toward the
North Star then you were heading north
since it’s so important to know where
the North Star is if you’re lost how can
we locate it in the sky one easy way is
to locate the Big Dipper
the Big Dipper is a really familiar easy
pattern of stars now the Big Dipper
points to the North Star take the two
outer stars in the bowl of the Big
Dipper and draw a line between those two
stars and follow that line up above the
pot it points toward the North Star so
it’s the myth associated with why the
North Star never changes the North Star
actually over the short term doesn’t
change but as I say it hasn’t always
been the North Star at least that star
hasn’t always been we have different
North stars over a 26,000 year cycle
because as the Earth spins the axis
waddles kind of like a child’s top
wobbles when it’s slowing down as a
result the polar axis points to
different stars or toward different
stars there are periods when there
really is no North Star I mean it’s just
a happy coincidence that right now we’re
pointing toward a star and it’s not a
very bright star at that 12 thousand
years from now the polar axis will be
pointing to Vega
one of the brightest stars in the sky
Please follow and like us: