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It is designated α Ursae Minoris (Latinized to Alpha Ursae Minoris) and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. With an apparent magnitude that fluctuates around 1.98, [3] it is the brightest star in the constellation and is readily visible to the naked eye at night. [15]
Currently, there is no South Pole Star like Polaris, the so-called North Star. Sigma Octantis is the closest near naked-eye star to the south celestial pole, but at apparent magnitude 5.47 it is barely visible on a clear night , making it less useful for casual navigational or astronomy alignment purposes.
Such multiple star systems are indicated by parentheses showing the individual magnitudes of component stars bright enough to make a detectable contribution. For example, the binary star system Alpha Centauri has the total or combined magnitude of −0.27, while its two component stars have magnitudes of +0.01 and +1.33. [3]
The Milky Way is brighter in the Southern Hemisphere than in the North. (Photo taken at La Silla Observatory) [2]. The fact that the sky is not completely dark at night, even in the absence of moonlight and city lights, can be easily observed, since if the sky were absolutely dark, one would not be able to see the silhouette of an object against the sky.
Navigators often use star charts to identify a star by its position relative to other stars. References like the Nautical Almanac and The American Practical Navigator provide four star charts, covering different portions of the celestial sphere. Two of these charts are azimuthal equidistant projections of the north and south poles. The other ...
The northern lights are expected to be strongest between Friday, Jan. 31, and Saturday, Feb. 1. The best time to view them is from 10:00 p.m. and 2 a.m. local time.
Numerous analyses have been conducted to examine the effects of polar night on humans. In Tromsø, Norway, a city located at 69 degrees north, there is a 2 month long polar night, lasting from mid-November to mid-January. An analysis was conducted based on 2015-16 data from a health survey that involved residents of the region over age 40, with ...
The north and south celestial poles appear permanently directly overhead to observers at Earth's North Pole and South Pole, respectively. As Earth spins on its axis, the two celestial poles remain fixed in the sky, and all other celestial points appear to rotate around them, completing one circuit per day (strictly, per sidereal day ).