How to find the North Star. A couple of simple rules

The starry sky is unusually beautiful. For many centuries, mankind has been watching the firmament. In the distant past, when they had not even thought about the fact that the Earth revolves around the Sun, there were already many legends and legends that these sky lanterns could mean.

It is thanks to the imagination of our ancestors, as well as the association of luminaries with celestial magical powers, in which people of different nationalities and ages believed, we now have the names that we have.

Why exactly "Big Dipper"?

For example, I wonder why the constellation of the GreaterThe bucket is also called the Big Dipper? We, in fact, can see only the seven largest bright stars, for which the shape of the bucket is composed. But in ancient times, more "eyed" people noticed a huge cluster of less bright stars, which in their combination gave the image of a bear.

It is this constellation, the brightest and most noticeable inour hemisphere and known to every curious person, is the starting point for understanding how to find the Polar Star - the landmark of many travelers in ancient times, deprived of the charms of electronic navigation devices. Now any student who listens to the teacher attentively at the lessons knows the way to find it - this information is provided by geography (grade 7).

The polar star is the only heavenly body,It does not change the visible position in the firmament. Therefore, looking at it, sailors and travelers always knew where the north is. It is stationary because it is the pole of rotation - it is through it that the imaginary axis of the planet Earth passes. So how to find the North Star, knowing only the location of the above-mentioned constellation Ursa Major?

A little preliminary preparation

To begin with, if you decide to devote yourselfstudy the night sky, choose the day when the sky will be clear, cloudless. It is also good that there was no bright full moon, because its light will eclipse those parts of the sky where it is. Also, be careful to ensure that you can sleep more the next day, because this business will enchant, and time will fly by unnoticed. A great way to spend a romantic evening, by the way. At the same time, you can defeat a girl with her knowledge of astronomy or spend time together studying the stars.

Further, the procedure of how to find the Polar Star goes into the search phase of the Big Dipper.

It is easy to see this constellation.

It is large, and under the conditions describedabove (clear sky, the absence of the moon), is easily determined in the sky. A large bucket from the territory of Russia is visible at any time of the year, except that in the autumn months in the south of the country it falls too low.

Stars of the Big Bucket

As already mentioned, the Big Dipper is made up of many stars, but the most prominent of them are seven. They are called the first letters of the Greek alphabet.

Of all these stars, we are interested in Alpha and Beta. Alfa Ursa Major has its own name - Dubha (the "big bear's back" in Arabic), and Beta is also called Merak. It is these two stars that will help us in deciding how to find the Polar Star.

Through Alpha and Beta we conduct an imaginary line thatconnects both stars. If you extend it up, it will rest against a bright star, which is Polar. It is above the North Pole, therefore it was always a night beacon for travelers from ancient times. Now this knowledge also does not hurt, because you can not always rely on navigation tools.

Polaris - the beginning of another constellation

With the knowledge of where the Polaris is located, we can also find another constellation - the Little Ursa. It has a similar shape in the form of a bucket, but much smaller and inverted.