Polaris

Polaris is NOT a constellation - it is a star. It's the North Star, meaning, it is directly above Earth's North Pole.

90 degrees

New York City.

Polaris is located at the end of the handle of the Little Dipper, also known as Ursa Minor. The Big Dipper is part of Ursa Major and does not point directly to Polaris.

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105-110 mph

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The stars themselves do not move. (Well, they do, but so slowly that nobody can notice it over a lifetime.) The stars APPEAR to rise in the east and set in the west because the Earth itself is spinning like a top.

The North Pole Star, Polaris, is positioned - by a fortunate coincidence - directly over the north pole of the Earth's rotation. So Polaris does not appear to move (much). Because of the way the Earth is spinning, the stars near Polaris appear to spin around Polaris! So the big dipper and the little dipper appear to make enormous circles in the sky centered on Polaris, going around once per day.

You can use the Big Dipper to find Polaris, which is also known as the North Star. Notice that a line from the two outermost stars in the bowl of the Big Dipper points to Polaris. And notice that Polaris marks the tip of the handle of the Little Dipper.

Polaris is about 430 light-years away from Earth, or 4.07 * 1018 meters, or 2.53 * 1015 miles.

China.

Almost directly above the North Pole.

Polaris is at its upper culmination once every 23hours 56minutes 4seconds. (rounded)

It happens when the local celestial meridian is equal to Polaris' right ascension, and

that's a different time every day of the year.

Probably your best source would be the staff of a local planetarium, or a local

astronomy club in your town. Phone them up, be nice about it, give them a few

dates that you're interested in, and they'll be happy to look up the times of

Polaris' upper culmination on those days for you.

It always appears due north in the sky and is a reasonably bright star

NO!

It is estimated at approx 130 parsecs but more recent papers put it much lower: at around 100 pc.

From Antarctica, for example.

Merak and Dubhe.

Yes it is. Other names are Stella Polaris(the pole star), Setlla Maris(the ship star), the steering star, and tou-mu(chinese goddessnof the north star)

Polaris is a yellow super-giant with two smaller companions, Polaris Aa has a radius which is 46 +/- 3 times the Sun's radius.