Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
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 ]
Northern Hemisphere circumpolar stars around Polaris, with a long-exposure producing a star trail photo. A pole star is a visible star that is approximately aligned with the axis of rotation of an astronomical body; that is, a star whose apparent position is close to one of the celestial poles.
Gerardus Mercator's map of the North Pole from 1595 C.G. Zorgdragers map of the North Pole from 1720 As early as the 16th century, many prominent people correctly believed that the North Pole was in a sea, which in the 19th century was called the Polynya or Open Polar Sea . [ 7 ]
A star chart of the entire Northern Sky, centered on the north celestial pole. The northern celestial hemisphere, also called the Northern Sky, is the northern half of the celestial sphere; that is, it lies north of the celestial equator. This arbitrary sphere appears to rotate westward around a polar axis due to Earth's rotation.
The south celestial pole is visible only from the Southern Hemisphere. It lies in the dim constellation Octans, the Octant. Sigma Octantis is identified as the south pole star, more than one degree away from the pole, but with a magnitude of 5.5 it is barely visible on a clear night.
The other two cover the equatorial region of the celestial sphere, from the declination of 30° south to 30° north. The two equatorial charts are mercator projections, one for the eastern hemisphere of the celestial sphere and one for the western hemisphere. Note that unlike familiar maps, east is shown to the left and west is shown to the right.
By: Troy Frisby/Patrick Jones, Buzz60 NASA's new pictures of Earth are reigniting conspiracy theories straight out of "Journey to the Center of the Earth."
Draco is a constellation in the far northern sky. Its name is Latin for dragon. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century Greek astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations today. The north pole of the ecliptic is in Draco. [1]