Many things, even the night sky looked foreign to me in Malawi, Africa. I couldn’t find the Big Dipper. The reason – it’s the Southern Hemisphere, pictured above. If in the USA, you want to find which direction is north at night, here’s how. First, search for the Big Dipper (BD) shaped like a big dipper in the northeastern sky in Spring’s early evening. The photo below of the Northern Hemisphere illustrates how using the BD you can find the bright Polaris star which is the North star. That points north. It’s more accurate than a compass. The Polaris (North) star is part of the Little Dipper. The BD is the nearest star cluster to us which explains why it seems larger than the others. It’s only 100 light years away! In the photo above, the Southern Cross (SC) can be used to find due south. The SC can be seen from Hawaii, and southern Florida and Texas.
Theresa Wise Author 