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Constellation
Little Dipper
The shape: a small, faint dipper by the Pole Star.
The Little Bear is Arcas, the son of Callisto. The Pole Star sits at the tip of its handle. It stands almost exactly above Earth's North Pole and therefore hardly moves – for centuries it has shown sailors and walkers the way north.
The stars of the figure
From bright to faint. Brightness is given in magnitudes (mag): the smaller the number, the brighter the star.
- Pole Star · 1.98 mag
- Kochab · 2.08 mag
- Pherkad · 3 mag
- EpsUMi · 4.2 mag
- ZetaUMi · 4.3 mag
- Yildun · 4.35 mag
- EtaUMi · 4.95 mag
In the 3D model
In the 3D model, under “Explore”, the sky dome shows when the constellation Little Dipper can be seen above Switzerland. “Constellations in 3D” shows how far apart its stars really are.
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