What makes the north star polaris special?

Answer 1

It appears stationary in the night sky, due to the fact that it lined up almost directly over the North Pole. Because of this it can be used to find true north, which is a very useful thing when sailing at night and all other points of reference are gone, such as landmarks or the sun.

Answer 2

Polaris is the north star, being possitioned directly above the north pole it doesn't move from it's spot in the nigth sky, this can be used to both tell direction and time at nigth without a compass or a watch.

Answer 3

Polaris or North Star, is important because at the moment it lies nearly in a direct line with the axis of the Earth's rotation "above" the North Pole - the north celestial pole - Polaris stands almost motionless on the sky, and all the stars of the Northern sky appear to rotate around it. Therefore, it makes an excellent fixed point from which to draw measurements for celestial navigation and for astrometry.

Due to the precession of the equinoxes, Polaris will not always be the pole star. Over tens of thousands of years, changes to the Earth's axis of rotation will cause it to point to other regions of the sky, tracing out a circle over 25,000 years.

Answer 4

As the North Star, it was important in navigation. However, Polaris, despite the name, is only occasionally the North Star, due to precession of the equinoxes. When the great pyramids were aligned, the North Star was Thuban, in Draco; in some tens of thousands of years, it will be Vega.

Also, to clear up some possible misconception: Polaris is by no means the most important star in the sky. The most important star in the sky is the Sun. Without it we couldn't live. It's a necessity. All other stars are, at most, conveniences, and Polaris is only slightly more so (due to its proximity to the celestial pole) than any other fairly bright star.

Answer 5

For us, mainly because it happens to be a relatively bright star, close to the sky's north pole. That makes it easy to locate north, and by extension, other directions. However, this will change over time; after a thousand or two thousand years, Polaris will no longer be the "north star", as a result of Earth's precession.

Answer 6

Polaris is the only star in the sky that seems to hardly move at all. It always appears at almost exactly the same point in the sky, at any hour of any night in the year. It can be used to tell directions at night. If you can identify Polaris, then you know that facing it means facing North.

Answer 7

Through a temporary and fortuitous coincidence, Polaris happens to be aligned above the north pole of the axis of the Earth's rotation. For early navigators in the past several hundred years, this has made it easy to determine direction and to establish their latitude.

This is a TEMPORARY condition, however, because the axis of the Earth's rotation "precesses" or wobbles with a period of about 26,000 years. 2,000 years ago, Polaris wasn't the "North Star", and 2000 years from now, it won't be.

Answer 8

It's just about at the north celestial pole... right now.

However, it's about as close to the celestial pole as it ever gets, and either already is or soon will start drifting away (very slowly).

Answer 9

it remains relatively stationary in the night sky while the other stars seem to move as earth rotates

Answer 10

Back in the old times in exploring through seas Navigators use Polaris to know where is north and to find out where they are just like using constellations.