Does the North Star ever move?
The North Star, also known as Polaris, is known to stay fixed in our sky.
It marks the location of the sky’s north pole, the point around which the whole sky turns. That’s why you can always use Polaris to find the direction north.
But the North Star does move. If you took its picture, you’d find that it makes its own little circle around the exact point of the north celestial pole every day. That’s because the North Star is really offset a little – by about three-quarters of a degree – from celestial north.
Where does this movement – or in Polaris’ case, lack of movement – come from? Earth spins under the sky once a day. Earth’s spin causes the sun in the daytime – and the stars at night – to rise in the east and set in the west. But the North Star is a special case. Because it lies almost exactly above Earth’s northern axis, it’s like the hub of a wheel. It doesn’t rise or set. Instead, it appears to stay put in the northern sky.
What’s more, the star we know as Polaris hasn’t been the only North Star.
A motion of Earth called precession causes our axis to trace out an imaginary circle on the celestial sphere every 26,000 years. Thousands of years ago, when the pyramids were rising from the sands of ancient Egypt, the North Star was an inconspicuous star called Thuban in the constellation Draco the Dragon.
Twelve thousand years from now, the blue-white star Vega in the constellation Lyra will be a much brighter North Star than our current Polaris.
Polaris could be a name for any North Star. Our current Polaris used to be called Phoenice.
By the way, Polaris – like all stars – has more than one kind of motion. The stars we see in our night sky are all members of our Milky Way galaxy. All of these stars are moving through space, but they’re so far away we can’t easily see them move relative to each other. That’s why the stars appear fixed relative to each other.
And it’s why, for the most part, we see the same constellations as our ancestors. So when you’re talking about stars “moving” or staying “fixed,” remember … they are all moving through the vastness of space. It’s just the relatively short time of a human lifespan that prevents us from seeing this grand motion.
Bottom line: The North Star is a symbol for constancy, but, if you took its picture, you’d find that it makes its own little circle around the sky’s north pole every day.
See more here: earthsky.org
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Tom
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All stars are moving through space. In another 250,000 years there will be a “new” North star. Polaris will still be around most likely, but not to indicate true north.
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GGordongoodguy
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The North “star” does not move. The Earth is Flat and motionless. The so called “stars” whatever they are, move above the Flat, stationary Earth in the Firmament above. If people would actually think for themselves instead of parroting the absolute nonsense from lying so called “science hacks” they would see clearly how ridiculous the whole fake model of the Universe really is. But unfortunately that is not the case. People are in fact sheeple and trained from birth to accept and embrace a massive body of lies and deceptions. Most will never realize it and will in fact be outraged that you question their false narrative.
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davejr
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G gor,
Can’t you put in for a different assignment? This one is so 15th century. See, did my own thinking.
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GGordongoodguy
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Well well Dave I don’t see any signs of you doing your own thinking at all. Funny, you are here on a website that constantly questions the fake “global warming” as well as the whole fake Plandemic but insist on ignorantly clinging to the Heliocentric theory. So what, the entire worlds governments could lie about global warming and push deadly vaccines but that same system would never lie about the shape of the earth? Nope. They wouldn’t do that now would they. Go to IFERS and learn something you mindless drone.
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Wisenox
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The pole star is a precession; yes it moves.
The north celestial pole is one of, if not the, most frequent displays in symbology. The “Wheel of Time” Amazon Prime show is all pole star, right down to the colors the women wear.
In “anno lucis”, the claimed beginning of recorded history, the pole star was located in Draco, which is where all the dragon motifs come from.
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