Ursa Minor

The Circumpolar Constellations

June 2011 : By Francine Jackson

We normally spend a lot of time enjoying the seasonal constellations, the ones that our ancestors depended on as indicators of changes here on Earth, but we often forget that there is a set of star patterns that are always there, waiting for us when we turn around to the north. These are the circumpolar constellations, the ones that, although their positions do change with time, they seem to travel in a circle centered at the sky’s north pole, and are always visible from our northern latitudes.