Constellation of the Month: Ursa Minor

Lots of interesting objects in our solar system proceed from our terrestrial vantage point across the sky from east to west along the relativity thin strip of the celestial map called the Zodiac and which reflect the disc-like alignment of lunar and planetary orbits...so the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune traverse this ever-changing path along the course of a day.  But if you live in the Earth's northern hemisphere as do I (and most of you) and face north, relatively little changes and you're never going to see any of those celestial objects looking in that direction.  Where I live, the Celestial North Pole is always at the same point, exactly thirty degrees up from the northern horizon. Almost directly on it is the second-magnitude star Polaris of the constellation Ursa Minor (Latin for "little bear").  Technically, I regard this constellation, also known as the Little Dipper, as a June constellation because the rest of its visible stars (Polaris represents the end star in the handle) cross the meridian above the north pole at that time during the evening hours...yet I can actually see it year-round if I want.  Whenever we go to an Atlantic beach like Daytona, Ormond or St. Augustine and look out after sunset...supposedly eastward...from our oceanfront hotel balcony...I can always see Polaris to the left since the beach (and our room) doesn't face directly eastward, but rather east-northeastward, moving the North Star a few degrees to the right and into our view.  Ursa Minor is a small constellation marked by only one other second-magnitude star, Kochab or Beta Ursae Minoris (Polaris is Alpha), the top star in the "dipper" part of the configuration. Once you find Polaris and Kochab you can (unless you're inhibited by city lights) string together the rest of the constellation's fainter stars.  I've never been south of the Equator, but if I ever go there I won't be able to see Polaris...instead the Celestial South Pole will be "visible", continually lying the same number of degrees directly north of the southern horizon as that of my latitude south of the Equator.  I put "visible" in quotes, though, because regrettably the Celestial South Pole is devoid of any bright star to pinpoint it...instead you have to either have an remarkably clear night to see the very obscure constellation Octans on which it lies or interpolate the Pole's location from bright southern stars like Alpha Centuari, Acrux, Achernar, and Canopus.  Not that I've ever had the opportunity to do that, though.  By the way, Polaris is a supergiant triple-star system a whopping 432 light-years distant...

Next month I'll pick another constellation to spotlight...