Finding The North Star

If you can find the Big Dipper in the sky, you have a skymark to orient yourself both on the Earth and in the Heavens. The two stars that form the pouring side of the bowl point to Polaris, the north star. Polaris is a rather faint star about five times farther away than the distance between the pointers themselves, and marks the tip of the handle of the Little Dipper. The Big and Little Dippers pour into each other, just as the Big Bear and the Little Bear ceaselessly turn around and around the northern sky.