How to Find the North Star
Survival tips always remind us of looking for the north star to help orient ourselves. Knowing which way we’re going is always helpful when you’re lost in the wilderness.
Many people mistake bright stars as the North Star. The Dog Star or the planet Venus are usual mistaken stars. Make sure you’re sure you’re looking at the North Star using the following steps.
Locating the North Star requires at least a basic knowledge of constellations. In fact, you don’t even have to know more than one, and that is the Big Dipper. The Big Dipper, also known as the Great Bear, is a dipper-like formation in the sky (hence the name) that dominates one patch of the sky. The stars that make up the Big Dipper are fairly bright, and can still shine even with the city lights. The same brightness will be its identifying factor against all the other stars in a darker setting.
When looking for the Big Dipper, keep in mind that it doesn’t have a fixed location, and depending on where you are, the date and the time of the evening, the Big Dipper may be found in different locations throughout the sky, similar to the sun when it changes positions throughout the day.
Once you’ve located the Big Dipper, look for the two stars that form the outer edge of the Big Dipper. They are the stars found on the “dipper” part, not the “handle” part of the Big Dipper! They also seem like they are aligned to one another.
Draw an imaginary line from the fainter star to the brighter star. Continue that straight line until you hit a third star. If you can, you can also try looking for the Little Dipper, whose handle is found near the North Star.
The third star that you hit when running a line from the Big Dipper is the North Star.