How to find the North Star from the UK
Last updated 4 November 2026
To find the North Star from the UK, find the Plough, then follow the two stars at the end of its bowl, Merak and Dubhe, onwards for about five times the gap between them. You arrive at Polaris: a moderately bright star on its own, roughly halfway up the northern sky. It marks due north to within a degree.
Step by step, with the Plough
- Face roughly north. If you are not sure which way that is, it is opposite to where the Sun stands at midday.
- Find the Plough. Seven bright stars in the shape of a saucepan. From the UK it never sets, so it is always somewhere in the northern half of the sky: high overhead on spring evenings, low in the north in autumn, standing on its handle in winter and hanging from it in summer. Our guide to the Plough has the detail.
- Pick out the Pointers. The two stars at the end of the bowl, furthest from the handle: Merak at the bottom and Dubhe at the top lip.
- Draw the line. Start at Merak, go through Dubhe, and carry on in the same direction for about five times the distance between them.
- Arrive at Polaris. The first reasonably bright star you reach. Nothing else bright sits near it, so once you know the spot it is easy to see.
A useful ruler: your fist at arm's length covers about ten degrees of sky. Merak to Dubhe is about half a fist, and Polaris is nearly three fists on from Dubhe.
The other way, with Cassiopeia
If the Plough is low or hidden behind trees, use Cassiopeia, the W (or M) of five bright stars on the far side of Polaris. The two always sit opposite each other, so when one is low the other is high. Polaris lies roughly midway between them, and the middle star of the W points loosely towards it.
How high to look
The height of Polaris above the horizon equals your latitude. From London, at about 51.5 degrees north, it stands about 51 degrees up, a little over halfway from the horizon to the point overhead. From Edinburgh, at about 56 degrees, it is higher; from Cornwall a little lower. Without counting fists: look just over halfway up the northern sky.
Navigators turned the rule round: measure the height of Polaris and you know how far north you are.
What makes it the North Star
Polaris, also called the Pole Star, is the brightest star in Ursa Minor, the Little Bear. It sits almost directly above the Earth's North Pole, on the line of the axis the Earth spins around. As the Earth turns, every other star appears to wheel round Polaris while it stays nearly still, which is why travellers and sailors in the northern hemisphere have steered by it for centuries. It is currently less than a degree from the exact celestial pole, about the width of two full Moons side by side.
It is not the brightest star
This is the commonest mistake about it. Polaris shines at about magnitude 2, much like the stars of the Plough, and dozens of stars are brighter; Sirius is more than 20 times brighter. Its fame comes from where it is, not how bright it is. Look for "the brightest star in the north" and you will probably land on Capella or Vega instead. Our list of the brightest stars in the UK sky will tell you which.
A fixed point to start from. Polaris is where many people begin when they look for a named star in the northern sky: Ursa Major, Cassiopeia and Cygnus all sit within a few hops of it, and they are among the constellations we name stars in. The named star itself is magnitude 6.5 or fainter, so it needs binoculars or a telescope, but its constellation you can find from here with your own eyes. See how to find a named star in the sky.
What kind of star Polaris is
A yellow-white supergiant, far bigger and more luminous than the Sun, usually quoted at around 430 to 450 light years away (estimates vary with the method). It is also a Cepheid variable, pulsing very slightly in size and brightness, though too little to notice by eye, and a small telescope shows a faint companion star beside it.
It will not always be the pole star
The Earth's axis wobbles slowly like a spinning top, tracing a circle on the sky about once every 26,000 years. This is precession. Polaris will be closest to the pole around the year 2100 and then drift away, and other stars will take their turn: Vega, high overhead on summer nights, will be the pole star in roughly 12,000 years.
It also only works in the north. Polaris sinks lower as you travel south and drops below the horizon beyond the equator. There is no bright southern pole star; people in the southern hemisphere use the Southern Cross and its pointer stars to find south.
Common questions
Where is the North Star in the UK sky?
Due north, roughly halfway up the sky. Its height above the horizon in degrees equals your latitude, so about 50 to 58 degrees depending on where in the UK you live. Find it by following the two pointer stars at the end of the Plough's bowl.
Is the North Star always visible from the UK?
Yes. Polaris never sets from anywhere in the UK, so it is there on every clear night of the year, staying in the same place while the other stars circle around it.
Which stars point to the North Star?
Merak and Dubhe, the two stars at the end of the Plough's bowl, known as the Pointers. A line from Merak through Dubhe, extended about five times their separation, leads to Polaris.
Is the North Star the brightest star?
No. Polaris is only around magnitude 2, and dozens of stars are brighter. It is famous because it sits almost exactly above the North Pole, which makes it a reliable marker for north.
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