How do you find the North Star?

Find the Big Dipper, take the two stars at the outer edge of its bowl, and follow the line they make out of the bowl. About five times the gap between them you reach the first moderately bright star on that line. That is Polaris, the North Star, and when you face it you are facing north.

I build Sky Map, the app mentioned below, so weigh my suggestions with that in mind.

Why people miss it

Searches like “how to find the north star in the sky” usually come from people who expected a brilliant star and did not see one. Polaris is ordinary to look at. What makes it special is position: it sits very close to the point in the sky that Earth’s axis points to, so while every other star wheels around during the night, Polaris barely moves.

Method 1: the Big Dipper pointers

1. Find the Big Dipper, seven stars shaped like a pan. In the UK it is often called the Plough.
2. Pick the two stars at the end of the bowl, away from the handle. They are called Dubhe and Merak, or simply the pointers.
3. Draw a line from Merak through Dubhe and keep going about five times their separation.
4. The first fairly bright star you meet is Polaris. It is also the end of the Little Dipper’s handle, but the rest of the Little Dipper is faint and often invisible from a town.

Method 2: Cassiopeia

When the Big Dipper is low near the horizon, Cassiopeia is usually high on the other side of Polaris. It looks like a W or an M made of five stars. Polaris lies roughly between Cassiopeia and the Big Dipper, so if you can see either one you can work towards it.

Using it to face north

Polaris marks true north, not magnetic north. Its height above the horizon is roughly your latitude: low in southern Spain, higher in Scandinavia. This only works in the Northern Hemisphere.

Where an app helps

If you are not sure which star you have found, Sky Map shows stars and constellations over the camera view when you point your iPhone at the sky, and it gives the altitude and azimuth of objects so you can check what you are looking at. Every one of the 88 constellations comes with finding tips. The core map works without internet. Sky Map is free to download, the AR view is free, and some features are paid. If the overlay looks shifted, see fixing compass and AR drift.

Read next: how to find constellations and what is that bright star.