North Star Fireback

This unique fireback illustrates the rule for finding Polaris, the North Star. The gaze of the moon shows how to use the pointer stars, Merak and Dubhe, in the bowl of the Big Dipper to find Polaris, the first star in the handle of the Little Dipper.

In the Northern Hemisphere the observer perceives Polaris as the center around which all other stars revolve once every twenty four hours. An imaginary line drawn through the pointers to the first bright star, approximately five times the distance between the pointers, always leads to this, the North Star. Unfortunately because of light pollution, the other stars of the Little Dipper can not always be seen.