Eye On The Night Sky For Tuesday, March 24

0:00I'm Mark Breen. Welcome to Night Sky for Tuesday, March 24. The North Star, true North, a guiding light, Shakespeare's quote from Julius Caesar, I am as constant as the Northern Star. Should it bother us that the North Star is not permanent, nor fixed, or, like so many situations in which Long Hill beliefs have been disproven, does it lead to a greater understanding? The Egyptians, 5,000 years ago, correctly identified the star Thuban, found along the tale of Draco the Dragon as the North Star. By the time the Greeks were studying the stars, this changed. There was no North Star. They used the two brighter stars in the bowl of the Little Dipper, Cokab and Faircad, calling them the Guardians of the Pole, since they rotated around the pivot point in the heavens around which all stars appear to rotate. The point aligned with our axis, our North Pole. Today's North Star, Polaris, has been our North Star for the past thousand years.

1:04Wednesday more details on the changing North Star on Night Sky. Night Sky is a production of Vermont Public in the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium.