The northern stars turn around Polaris and the North Celestial Pole in a composite spanning multiple hours during a single night in the summer of 2014. The bright point at the center is Polaris, our ...

Polaris, also known as the 'Pole Star' or 'North Star', is arguably the most famous stellar body to hang in the western hemisphere's night sky. For centuries it has served as a vital waypoint for ...

This illustration shows how Earth’s spin axis (blue) is tilted from perpendicular, causing it to precess and trace out a circle over about 26,000 years. The brightest star nearest the North Celestial ...

Halfway between the celestial poles is the celestial equator, a projection of Earth’s equator onto the sky. The stars on the celestial equator rise due east and set due west. Delta Orionis, the ...

One of the most famous stars in the night sky, as seen from the Northern Hemisphere, is Polaris, the North Star. Technically known as Alpha Ursae Minoris, as it is the brightest star in Ursa Minor the ...

This multicoloured swirl of yellow and blue shows a prominent ring of gas near the North Celestial Pole. The pole appears to be fixed in place, while the rest of the night sky slowly circles around it ...

Overlay of a star-trail photograph, in which stars (white arcs) appear to rotate around the north celestial pole, and a numerical simulation of time-invariant polarization lines (dark lines) as ...

As someone who has spent thousands of hours observing the night sky, I like to think that I’m pretty familiar with it and able to navigate my way around with some ease. That’s certainly true on the ...