Ursa Major and Minor

Despite being designated as “Alpha Ursa Majoris”, Dubhe is in fact the second brightest star in the constellation, only slightly dimmer that Alioth (Epsilon UMa) shining brightest at magnitude 1.77.
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Included here as a matter of curiosity, the pair of stars Charles Messier cataloged as M40 in 1764 is often referred to as “Messiers’ Mistake”. The purpose of Messier’s catalog was to make note of objects that could possibly be confused by an observer as being cometary objects. The pair is unremarkable and shows no sign of nebulosity; the stars are in no way physically related.
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STF 1386 & STF 1387 – Two physical binary systems visible in a single field-of-view.
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Polaris is the end star of the handle of the “Little Dipper” (the constellation Ursa Minor). It is located almost exactly over the North Celestial Pole so it is also known as the “North Star” and appears to remain stationary throughout the night as the other stars and constellations rotate around the celestial poles (see photo below). It is also a fine physical binary star and its small companion is easily visible in small telescopes.
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In this 90 minute time-lapse photo taken from my backyard you can see how the stars appear to rotate around the North Celestial Pole while airplanes criss-cross the sky and a couple of meteors make their momentary appearances. The stationary star near the center of rotation is Polaris – “The North Star”.
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