Finding the Little Dipper?

Sometimes I can look up in the night sky and there it is, just like a 70 year old with yellow shorts on golf course…is the Little Dipper. For the last month now I’ve been looking for it each night I’m out fishing and can not find it.

Can anyone give me a sure fire…EASY way to locate it?

Thanks…

The following taken from http://www.union.edu

The Big Dipper is in the northern sky. It may look something like your momís gravy ladle. In the evening sky during autumn, the Big Dipper appears to be right side up, while in the spring-time evening sky, the dipper appears upside down. It is formed by seven stars – three form the dipper handle and four comprise the bowl of the dipper. The bowl of the Big Dipper looks somewhat like a square (actually a trapezoid) and is about 10 degrees across. You can measure this 10 degrees by making a fist and holding your fist up at armsí length against the sky. Your fist should appear to just fit inside the bowl of the Big Dipper. The Big Dipper is fairly easy to find because all of the stars comprising it are quite bright, except for the one which connects the handle to the bowl.

Now that you have located the Big Dipper, you can use it to find the North Star, Polaris, as well as other constellations. To find Polaris, locate the outer edge of the bowl of the Big Dipper (the side of the dipper furthest from the handle). The two stars on this outer edge are called the “Pointer Stars.” Starting from the Pointer Star at the bottom of the dipper and pretending to draw a straight line from it through the Pointer Star at the top of the bowl, continue drawing a line from the dipper bowl about five times as long as the distance between the two pointer stars, allowing your line to follow the curve of the sky slightly. At the end of your line, you will find Polaris, which is the brightest star in that region of the sky. If you are facing Polaris, you are facing north. Since Polaris remains at this location all year round, once you find Polaris, you know that East is on your right, South is behind you, and West is on your left.

Polaris is the last star in the handle of the constellation, or asterism, called the Little Dipper. The Little Dipper is more difficult to find than the Big Dipper because its stars are not as bright. Therefore, you may need a very dark, clear night to find the complete Little Dipper in the sky. The Little Dipper is smaller than the Big Dipper and its bowl hangs down from the handle.

Cool! Thanks James!

You can also go to http://www.skymaps.com. You can sign up for them to e-mail you the monthly constellations visible. I do this before we go on our Cub Scout campouts for the kiddos to look and find “stuff” in the sky. I can never remember what is where, kind of like tying knots…

What a lot of people do not realize is that what you see at 10:00 tonight is not the same as what you will see at 3:00AM this morning. Nor will it be the same at either of these times 3, 6, 9 monthsa from now. All of the constellations appear to revolve around Polaris (the north star). As we orbit the sun, we get a different view of the heavens as time goes on. If you really want to get into this, a very good free astronomy program is linked below. You can change the date, time, view and much more. Draw in the constellation line, point at an object with your mouse and click and the name is given in the upper left hand corner. Not sure if this will run on XP, but I would suspect it would.
Adastra

I have trouble with that sometimes when it is cold in the boat too.

Isn’t that what you named your Clonk?

rmartin, your picture is EXACTLY what I see at night!!! Confusion!!!

I don’t think that will run on a Mac…but I’ll try it out. Thanks for the tips guys…you too Putz and Eye-Guide!