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(1b)  Finding the Pole Star    
  Index

1. Stargazers

1a. Celest. Sphere

1b. Pole Star

2. The Ecliptic
2a. The Sundial

3. The Seasons

3a. Angle
        of sunlight

4. The Moon (1)

 4a. The Moon (2)

 4b. Moon Libration

5.Latitude and
        Longitude

5a. Navigation

5b. Cross-Staff

5c. Coordinates

6. The Calendar

The flag also shows how the north star can be found. Imagine a line connecting the two stars at the front of the "dipper", continue it on the side where the dipper is "open" to a distance 5 times that between the two stars (the flag shortens this a bit!), and you will arrive at (or very close to) the pole star. Because of their role in locating Polaris, these two stars are often called "the guides." And by the way--the last-but-one star in the handle of the "dipper", named Mizar by Arab astronomers, is a double star, whose components are readily separated by binoculars--or, some say, by very sharp eyes during good viewing conditions.

Cassiopeia

Cassiopeia was a queen in Greek mythology, and the constellation named for her is shaped like the letter W. Polaris is above the first "V" of this letter. If you draw a line dividing the angle of that "V" in half and continue along it, you will reach the vicinity of Polaris.

The name of Cassiopeia's husband, King Cepheus, goes with a nearby constellation, above the other "V" (the brighter one), but Cepheus is nowhere as striking as Cassiopeia. Her daughter Andromeda has another constellation, framed by a big undistinguished rectangle of four stars. An unremarkable constellation to the eye--but it contains a large galaxy, our nearest neighbor in space (not counting two dwarf galaxies in the southern sky), one which seems to resemble ours in size and shape.

Ursa Minor, the "Small Bear" or "Little Dipper" is a constellation somewhat resembling the Big Dipper, and Polaris is the last star in its tail. The "dipper" itself faces the tail of the Big Dipper, so that the two "tails" (or "handles") point in opposite directions. The two front stars of the "little dipper" (quite smaller and more square than the big one) are fairly bright, but other stars are rather dim and require good eyes and a dark sky.

Further Exploration

Benny Benson was of mixed Swedish-Alutiiq parentage and grew up in the Aleut islands. He was placed in the Jesse-Lee Memorial Home for Orphans in Unalaska, Aleut islands, and later moved to Seward, Alaska, where he was attending the 7th grade when he proposed his flag design. He is honored with a monument at the end of 3rd Ave. in Seward.
          Later Benny became an airplane mechanic and lived on Kodiak. Throughout his life he made miniature Alaska flags and some are displayed in various public places. For more:

Questions from Users:   About the stars of the Big Dipper
                      ***       Does anything mark the southern pole of the sky?.
                     ***       Is the correct term "constellation" or "asterism"?.
                 ***       Is the Big Dipper visible from Viet Nam?

Next Stop: #2 The Path of the Sun, the Ecliptic

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Author and Curator:   Dr. David P. Stern
     Mail to Dr.Stern:   stargaze("at" symbol)phy6.org .

Last updated: 12 December 2004