Polaris
The North Star. It stands almost exactly above the Earth’s north pole, so the whole sky seems to turn around it.
Tonight from
Rise, highest point and set are worked out on your device for the place above.
What it is
- Brightness
- Magnitude 1.97, the 48th brightest star in the night sky
- Distance
- 433 light years
- Kind of star
- Yellow-white supergiant, spectral type F7 Ib-II
- Light it gives out
- About 2,500 times the Sun’s, in visible light
- Constellation
- Ursa Minor, where it is α Ursae Minoris
- Catalogue number
- HIP 11767
Figures from HYG database 4.1 (Hipparcos, Yale Bright Star and Gliese catalogues), CC BY-SA 4.0. All sources
Near it in the sky
- Cigar GalaxyA galaxy in Ursa Major, about a hand span away.
- Bode’s GalaxyA galaxy in Ursa Major, about a hand span away.
- DubheA bright star in Ursa Major, about a hand span away.
- Double ClusterAn open cluster in Perseus, about two hand spans away.
- AliothA white star in Ursa Major, about two hand spans away.