Finding the north star?

Calling all Astronomers and Eagle Scouts

I was out in the desert last week and did a time exposure of the night sky. I was trying to get the sky revolving around the north star.

From the results, it appears that the north star is *not really* in the northern part of the sky. It appears to be farther over in the western part of the sky, about 20-30 degrees or so off from the sunset.

Does anyone have any suggestions on finding it? There's no moon in a few days, and I want to give it another try.

I'm in the San Diego area: Latitude and Longitude roughly 32° 44' N and 117° 10' W

Thanks !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!! -GB

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GB1

Calling all Astronomers and Eagle Scouts

I was out in the desert last week and did a time exposure of the night sky. I was trying to get the sky revolving around the north star.

From the results, it appears that the north star is *not really* in the northern part of the sky. It appears to be farther over in the western part of the sky, about 20-30 degrees or so off from the sunset.

Does anyone have any suggestions on finding it? There's no moon in a few days, and I want to give it another try.

I'm in the San Diego area: Latitude and Longitude roughly 32� 44' N and 117� 10' W

Thanks !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!! -GB

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The north star is almost exactly at the pole, at least for now (the Earth's pole does precess). If you are off by 20-30 degrees you picked the wrong star to center on.

You will find Polaris by looking for the little dipper. Follow the two stars on the outer edge of the "pot" portion to head for Polaris. It's at 90 degrees declination and directly north.

Actually, it's off the big dipper. Extend a line from the far side of the bowl-part of that constellation up, it's about two to three times the distance as the side of the bowl. Of course that's not exactly a scientific explaination :) ! If you're going towards that star, you're going north (pretty close, anyway).

Oops, big dipper. A very simple picture of how do do this is located at

http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Spolaris.htm

Ok Gents.. I will try again. If I screw it up again, you may read about me in the papers though ("Frustrated Photographer Questions Own Sanity, Jumps Off Cliff").

The web page had a good description - we'll see how it goes this time....

- Gb