The Pole Star Indicates the Direction to the
- North
- South
- East
- West
Ans. (1) North
The Pole Star Indicates the Direction to the: Solution
North Star or Polaris is not an especially bright star. It’s ranked 46th out of top 50 brightest star in the night sky. It’s not exceptionally large or small, hot or cool, close to the earth or distant. Polaris happens to be located essentially above the Earth’s North Pole.
How to Locate Pole Star?
To begin with, scan the constellations in the night sky. Locate Ursa Major, specifically the Big Dipper. The pattern of the Big Dipper with its tell-tale ladle shape is easy to find even though its position in the sky depends on where you are viewing it from the time of the year and even the time of the night.
Once you find it, Zero in the two stars at the end of the spoon shape. These are known as Pointer Stars. Now draw an imaginary line through these two stars, they will always point you to the Polaris or the North Star. Only one condition you need to satisfy is that you need to be at the north of the Equator. Polaris is not visible from the Southern Hemisphere.
Importance of Pole Star
Polaris or Pole Star can tell you two interesting things:
- Polaris tells you what direction North is from where you are standing. This is very helpful for navigation.
- Since Pole Star is located above the North Pole of the Earth, we can use it estimate our latitude. Our latitude is the angular measurement of our position on Earth north or south of the Equator. Using Polaris, we can tell how far, how many degrees of latitude north of Equator we are located to.
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