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Far from any lights, the sky fills with stars. Drawn from real star positions; bigger dots are brighter stars. See it from a city or the suburbs in the app.

✨ Constellation

Ursa Minor

The Little Bear, with Polaris at the tip of its tail.

Name means: The Little Bear
Best seen: July evenings
Where to see it: Only from the northern half of Earth
Brightest star: Polaris
Stars in the pattern: 7

Did you know?

Polaris sits almost exactly above Earth’s North Pole, so it barely moves while every other star circles around it.
Travellers and sailors used it for centuries to find north.

In this part of the sky

Ursa Major The Great Bear, home of the Big Dipper.

More NASA photos of Ursa MinorStraight from NASA’s image library, in the app

Explore more

All of night sky

Orion The Hunter, with three bright stars in a row for his belt. Ursa Major The Great Bear, home of the Big Dipper. Cassiopeia A bright W of five stars, named after a boastful queen. Scorpius The Scorpion, with red Antares at its heart. Leo The Lion, whose head is a backwards question mark of stars. Taurus The Bull, with red Aldebaran as its glowing eye.

Facts: Star patterns: d3-celestial (IAU figures, Hipparcos star data). Stories: traditional Greek and Roman myths. Open Ursa Minor in the app.