Kochab and Pherkad in the Little Dipper
3 comments Print Me Email to FriendTonight is Tuesday, Apr 13 2010
If you draw an imaginary line between the two outer stars in the bowl of the Big Dipper – and extend that line northward on the sky’s dome – you’ll come to Polaris, the North Star. Polaris marks the end of the handle of the Little Dipper, which is fainter and looks less like a dipper than the Big Dipper.
Polaris is special because Earth’s northern axis nearly points to it. Polaris is less than a degree away from true north on the sky’s dome now. It’ll be closest to true north — less than half a degree away — in the year 2102. The change is due to a motion of Earth called “precession,” which causes Earth’s axis to trace out a circle among the stars every 26,000 years.
Thousands of years ago, Polaris was an ordinary star in the northern sky, known to the Greeks by the name “Phoenice.” Other ordinary stars in the northern sky now – Kochab and Pherkad in the Little Dipper – have had the honor of being pole stars.
Kochab and Pherkab served as twin pole stars from about 1500 BC to about 500 BC. They are still sometimes called the Guardians of the Pole. Kochab is located about 126 light-years away. Pherkad is more distant, at about 480 light-years, by some estimates. Polaris is a bit more than 400 light-years away.
is the little dipper out tonight (January 7,2008
In their book, Hamlet’s Mill, Giorgio de Santillana & Hertha von Dechend laid out the deep meaning which Kochab had as the ancient North Star (beta Ursae Minoris): Kochab “Star” was the millpeg or axle of the ever-turning and grinding mill of the gods, the Plaga Septentrionales. At the end of each age (by precession)the old millstone would go out of kilter, become unhinged, and be cast from the sky into the sea where it would become the cause of a great whirlpool or vortex (Maelstrom or Charybdis), the entranceway to chaos and death. For the Mill of the Gods is the turning mill of time, destiny, and fate — the way into and out of the watery abyss of death and hell. Kronos-Saturn is the Lord and Pivot of that Mill, for he is Polaris, the “north nail” or “World Nail.” According to William F. Albright, the Dipper & Polaris represent the unwearying circumpolar stars of God in Isaiah 14:13, and they symbolize eternity there in the Bible, as well as in ancient Egypt and Phoenicia.
Yes, Ursa Minor (the “Little Dipper”) is ALWAYS in the sky.* It circles round and round Polaris, never rising or setting. It’s up there even during the day, although daylight keeps you from seeing it.
*in the Northern hemisphere