Then why is Polaris n the same spot
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answers:
Morningfox say: Polaris DOES move. There is the daily apparent rotation around the North Celestial pole, in a circle of about 0.74 degrees radius. Then there is also the slow drift away from the North Celestial pole, of about 0.00033 degrees per century.
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spot a say: Polaris is NOT still. Its declination is 89 degrees 15 minutes so it is 0 degrees and 45 minutes away from the North celestial pole. Polaris appears to travel in a very small circle around the North celestial pole.
It is 433.8 light years from Earth so the movement of the earth in a year, and even the movement of the solar system around the galaxy, at 500,000 mph, makes almost no difference to Polaris.
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Hermit Homeboy say: A lot of people, some who are reasonably intelligent, think the North Pole is straight "up". Of course Polaris is the north star. The rotation of the Earth makes the North Star circle in its apparent path in the sky. It is a very small circle. We know even Polaris moves, AND yes, the Sun moves.
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Bill say: Polaris is almost directly over the Earth's north pole. So when the Earth is Rotating on it's axis, Polaris remains stationary.
The Earth Orbits the Sun, however Polaris is so far away that the Diameter of the the Earth's orbit is too small to make a difference.
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Brigalow Bloke say: It is not perfectly still, it wobbles.
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Nyx say: Polaris is currently offset from the north celestial pole by about a degree (two lunar diameters).
http://www.derekscope.co.uk/wp-content/u...
http://www.astrosurf.com/c2a/english/sup...
In a few thousand years, it'll be even further away, due to the axial precession of Earth.
http://astro.wsu.edu/worthey/astro/html/...
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