How to find the Little Dipper
When to look
April, May, June, July evenings
Face north
Find the North Star first: it's the end of the Little Dipper's handle. Two brighter stars mark the end of its bowl. All year, in the north; faint, so it needs a dark sky. Best on spring and summer evenings. The drawing below is made from the real positions of its 7 stars, as the sky looks when you face it, with bigger dots for brighter stars. No telescope needed.
The Little Dipper is a small spoon of stars. The North Star is at the end of its handle. You need a dark night to see it all.
The Little Dipper, part of Ursa Minor, hangs from the North Star. Only Polaris and the two stars at the end of its bowl, Kochab and Pherkad, are easy; the rest are faint and need a dark sky away from town lights.
Because Earth's axis points almost at Polaris, the Little Dipper turns around it like the hand of a clock, a full circle each day. Kochab and Pherkad are sometimes called the Guardians of the Pole. The Ursid meteors in December seem to come from near Kochab.
The stars in it
Polaris, Yildun, Epsilon, Zeta, Kochab, Pherkad, Eta. The brightest is Polaris.
How to find it
- Go out after dark with a grown-up, and give your eyes ten minutes away from screens.
- Face north and look for: find the North Star first: it's the end of the Little Dipper's handle. Two brighter stars mark the end of its bowl.
- Hold up this page's drawing or the printed card and match the shape to the sky. If the sky is clear.
More star patterns
“Star patterns turn through the night, so the shape may be tipped on its side. Turn your head, not the sky.”