# What is the North Star?

> Polaris, the North Star, sits almost above Earth's North Pole, so it barely moves. How to find it from the Big Dipper, and why it isn't the brightest.

HTML: https://www.theuniversecounts.com/stars/the-stars-you-can-see/polaris

Numbers as of 2026-11-04 15:04 UTC. Live ones keep changing on the HTML page.

The North Star is Polaris, a star that sits almost exactly above Earth's North Pole. As Earth turns, every other star circles around it, while Polaris barely moves. That makes it a guide: face it, and you are facing north. Polaris is not especially bright: dozens of stars outshine it. It is a giant star, far larger than the Sun, and its light takes about 450 years to reach us. From the Southern Hemisphere you can't see it at all.

- The Moon's distance from Earth right now: 382,268 km
- The Sun's distance from Earth: 148,368,206 km
- Jupiter's distance from Earth: 814,479,554 km

## The star that stays still

Why doesn't the North Star move?

The stars are not moving across the sky. We are turning beneath them. Earth spins on an axis that runs through the North and South Poles, and the northern end of that axis points at one spot in the sky. Polaris happens to sit very close to that spot.

So as the night goes on and Earth turns, the other stars swing round in circles, and Polaris stays almost exactly where it is. A long-exposure photograph of the northern sky shows every star drawn as an arc around one point, with Polaris making the smallest circle of all. It is not perfectly on the pole: it is a little more than the width of the full Moon away, so it traces a tiny circle of its own each night.

At the equator, Earth's spin carries the ground along at 0.4651 kilometres per second. Since you opened this page, the equator has turned [counts up live on the page] kilometres beneath the sky, and Polaris has hardly shifted.

## Find it from the Big Dipper

How do I find the North Star?

Start with the Big Dipper, the seven bright stars that in Britain are called the Plough. From most of Europe and Canada it never sets, so you can find it on any clear night; farther south it dips low in autumn evenings. The two stars at the end of the Dipper's bowl, away from the handle, are called the Pointers. Draw a line through them, out from the top of the bowl, and keep going. The first fairly bright star you reach is Polaris.

Polaris is the last star in the handle of the Little Dipper, a fainter pattern that you may only see from a dark site.

How high should you look? Polaris stands as many degrees above your horizon as your latitude. To measure, use your hand: a fist held at arm's length covers about 10 degrees of sky. From the North Pole, Polaris is straight overhead. From the equator, it sits right on the horizon. From London or Copenhagen it is a little over halfway up.

## Not the brightest star

Is the North Star the brightest star?

Many people expect the North Star to be the brightest star in the sky. It isn't. On the magnitude scale, which runs backwards so that lower numbers are brighter, Polaris is 2.02. Depending on how you count close pairs of stars, between 47 and 50 stars outshine it. Sirius, the brightest, is -1.46.

Polaris is still easy to see, even from a town, because it is bright enough to cut through light pollution and there are few bright stars near it to confuse you. What makes it special is its place in the sky, not its glow.

Polaris looks modest because it is far away. It is about 52 times farther from us than Sirius. Measurements place it between 433 and 521 light-years away, and the next data from the Gaia spacecraft should help settle the question.

## What the eye can't tell

What kind of star is Polaris?

To the eye Polaris is one steady point. In fact it is at least three stars. The bright one is a yellow supergiant, a star that has swollen far larger than the Sun. It has a close companion that circles it, and a fainter one farther out.

The supergiant is also a Cepheid, a kind of star that slowly swells and shrinks, brightening and dimming in a regular rhythm. Polaris is the nearest Cepheid to us. Its pulses are so small that the eye can't see them, but they matter. Astronomers use Cepheids to measure the distances to other galaxies, because the rhythm of a Cepheid's pulse reveals how much light it gives out. Polaris, close enough to study in detail, could help check that method, once its own distance is pinned down.

## North Stars come and go

Has Polaris always been the North Star?

Polaris has not always been the North Star, and it won't be forever. Earth's axis wobbles slowly, like a spinning top, and the point in the sky it aims at traces a wide circle. One full turn of that wobble takes about 26,000 years, about 5 times as long as all of recorded history.

When the first pyramids were being built in Egypt, the North Star was Thuban, a modest star in the constellation of the Dragon. Today it is Polaris, and the pole is still creeping closer to it, until around the end of this century. Then it will slowly draw away. About half a turn of the wobble from now, the pole will lie near Vega, one of the brightest stars in the northern sky.

Anyone who looks for the North Star is taking part in a very old human habit. The star changes; the looking does not.

## FAQ

### Can you see the North Star from the Southern Hemisphere?

No. South of the equator, Polaris is below the horizon. There is no bright south pole star either. The faint star Sigma Octantis lies close to the south pole of the sky, but it is too dim to find easily. Instead, people in the south use the stars of the Southern Cross: its long arm points towards the south pole of the sky, a patch with few bright stars that lies above due south.

### Can you see the North Star every night?

From most of the Northern Hemisphere, yes, whenever the sky is clear and dark. Because it sits almost on the pole, it never rises or sets, and it is in the same place all night and all year.

### Why is the North Star important?

Because it shows you which way is north, and how far north you are. For centuries, sailors and travellers used it to find their way at night, and to work out their latitude from how high it stood.

### Is the North Star a planet?

No. Polaris is a star, much larger and brighter in itself than the Sun. Planets shift from night to night against the stars, while Polaris stays put.

### Can you see the North Star from Australia?

No. All of Australia is south of the equator, so Polaris never rises there. Australians find south using the Southern Cross instead.

## Related

- [Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky](https://www.theuniversecounts.com/stars/the-stars-you-can-see/sirius.md)
- [Counting the stars you can see](https://www.theuniversecounts.com/stars/the-stars-you-can-see/how-many-stars-can-you-see.md)
- [The night sky tonight](https://www.theuniversecounts.com/you/your-sky/star-map.md)

The North Star has changed before and will change again, but tonight it is Polaris. Where does it stand above your horizon?

## Sources

- Angle of sky covered by a fist held at arm's length (Estimated): [NASA Science: Skywatching FAQ](https://science.nasa.gov/skywatching/faq/); [NASA Chandra X-ray Center: Scales & Angular Measurement](https://www.chandra.si.edu/resources/illustrations/scales.html)
- Apparent visual magnitude of Polaris (Measured, with error): [arXiv (accepted, The Astrophysical Journal): Evans et al. 2024, The Orbit and Dynamical Mass of Polaris: Observations with the CHARA Array](https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.09641)
- Apparent visual magnitude of Sirius (Measured, with error): [SIMBAD, CDS Strasbourg (CfA mirror): SIMBAD basic data and V magnitudes for Sirius, Polaris, Betelgeuse, Rigel and other named stars](https://simbad.harvard.edu/simbad/sim-tap/sync?REQUEST=doQuery&LANG=ADQL&FORMAT=tsv&QUERY=SELECT%20i.id%2C%20b.main_id%2C%20b.pmra%2C%20b.pmdec%2C%20b.plx_value%2C%20b.plx_err%2C%20b.plx_bibcode%2C%20b.rvz_radvel%2C%20b.rvz_err%2C%20b.rvz_bibcode%2C%20b.sp_type%2C%20f.flux%2C%20f.flux_err%2C%20f.bibcode%20FROM%20ident%20AS%20i%20JOIN%20basic%20AS%20b%20ON%20b.oid%3Di.oidref%20LEFT%20JOIN%20flux%20AS%20f%20ON%20%28f.oidref%3Di.oidref%20AND%20f.filter%3D%27V%27%29%20WHERE%20i.id%20IN%20%28%27%2A%20alf%20CMa%27%2C%27%2A%20alf%20UMi%27%2C%27%2A%20alf%20Ori%27%2C%27%2A%20bet%20Ori%27%2C%27%2A%20alf%20Dra%27%2C%27%2A%20alf%20Lyr%27%2C%27%2A%20alf%20Car%27%2C%27%2A%20eps%20Ori%27%2C%27%2A%20sig%20Oct%27%2C%27%2A%20alf%20CMa%20B%27%2C%27%2A%20alf%20UMi%20B%27%2C%27M%2042%27%29); [NASA HEASARC: HEASARC TAP query of the BSC5P table: name, ra, dec, vmag for all 9,110 entries](https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/xamin/vo/tap/sync?REQUEST=doQuery&LANG=ADQL&MAXREC=20000&QUERY=SELECT%20name%2Cra%2Cdec%2Cvmag%20FROM%20bsc5p); [IAU WGSN: IAU Catalog of Star Names (IAU-CSN), IAU Division C Working Group on Star Names](https://www.pas.rochester.edu/~emamajek/WGSN/IAU-CSN.txt)
- Diameter of a regulation football (size 5) (Measured, with error): [The IFAB: Laws of the Game, Law 2 – The Ball](https://www.theifab.com/laws/latest/the-ball/)
- Distance from the Sun to Polaris (Estimated): [arXiv (accepted, The Astrophysical Journal): Evans et al. 2024, The Orbit and Dynamical Mass of Polaris: Observations with the CHARA Array](https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.09641); [The Astrophysical Journal: Bond et al. 2018, Hubble Space Telescope Trigonometric Parallax of Polaris B, Companion of the Nearest Cepheid (ApJ 853, 55; doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aaa3f9)](https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.08139)
- Distance to Sirius (Measured, with error): [Astronomy & Astrophysics: Validation of the new Hipparcos reduction (van Leeuwen 2007, A&A 474, 653)](https://arxiv.org/abs/0708.1752)
- Earth's average distance from the Sun in kilometres (Measured): [NASA: Earth: Facts](https://science.nasa.gov/earth/facts/)
- Earth's diameter at the equator (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Earth Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html)
- Jupiter's distance from Earth (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Jupiter Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/jupiterfact.html)
- Length of recorded history, since the first writing (Estimated): [British Museum: How to write cuneiform](https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/how-write-cuneiform)
- Number of stars in the night sky brighter than Polaris (close doubles counted once) (Debated): [NASA HEASARC: BSC5P - Bright Star Catalog (Hoffleit & Warren 1991, 5th revised edition)](https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/star-catalog/bsc5p.html); [NASA HEASARC: HEASARC TAP query of the BSC5P table: name, ra, dec, vmag for all 9,110 entries](https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/xamin/vo/tap/sync?REQUEST=doQuery&LANG=ADQL&MAXREC=20000&QUERY=SELECT%20name%2Cra%2Cdec%2Cvmag%20FROM%20bsc5p); [SIMBAD, CDS Strasbourg (CfA mirror): SIMBAD V magnitudes for stars near Polaris's brightness in the Bright Star Catalogue](https://simbad.harvard.edu/simbad/sim-tap/sync?REQUEST=doQuery&LANG=ADQL&FORMAT=tsv&QUERY=SELECT%20i.id%2C%20b.main_id%2C%20b.sp_type%2C%20f.flux%20FROM%20ident%20AS%20i%20JOIN%20basic%20AS%20b%20ON%20b.oid%3Di.oidref%20LEFT%20JOIN%20flux%20AS%20f%20ON%20%28f.oidref%3Di.oidref%20AND%20f.filter%3D%27V%27%29%20WHERE%20i.id%20IN%20%28%27HR%205958%27%2C%27HR%207121%27%2C%27HR%204731%27%2C%27HR%204730%27%2C%27HR%205460%27%2C%27HR%201948%27%2C%27HR%20617%27%2C%27HR%202294%27%29)
- Period of Earth's axial precession (one full circle of the wobble of Earth's axis) (Measured, with error): [NASA Science: Milankovitch (Orbital) Cycles and Their Role in Earth's Climate](https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/earth-science/climate-science/milankovitch-orbital-cycles-and-their-role-in-earths-climate/); [NASA Science: What Is the North Star and How Do You Find It?](https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/skywatching/what-is-the-north-star-and-how-do-you-find-it/)
- Speed of Earth's spin at the equator (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Earth Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html)
- The International Space Station's orbital speed (Measured): [NASA: Station Facts](https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station/space-station-facts-and-figures/)
- The Moon's average distance from Earth (Measured): [NASA: Moon Facts](https://science.nasa.gov/moon/facts/)
- The Moon's distance from Earth right now (Measured): [NASA: Moon Facts](https://science.nasa.gov/moon/facts/)
- The Sun's distance from Earth (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Sun Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/sunfact.html)
- Typical adult walking speed (Estimated): [Physiotherapy (Elsevier): Normal walking speed: a descriptive meta-analysis (Physiotherapy 97(3), 182–189)](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physio.2010.12.004)
- Typical cruising speed of a long-haul airliner (Estimated): [EUROCONTROL: Aircraft Performance Database: B789 (Boeing 787-9)](https://contentzone.eurocontrol.int/aircraftperformance/details.aspx?ICAO=B789); [EUROCONTROL: Aircraft Performance Database: A388 (Airbus A380-800)](https://contentzone.eurocontrol.int/aircraftperformance/details.aspx?ICAO=A388)