Polaris

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Polaris fell from the sky one dark and gloomy night, landing almost in the Behemoth's leafy branches. The impact (and resulting sudden acclimation to gravity) compacted his body into a lithe, draconian form not dissimilar to a spiral. Polaris could barely speak, as severely injured as he was, but Sobek stepped up to nurse him back to health when Larimar and the rest of the boarder patrol found him and brought him in. Polaris had piqued the Pearlcatcher's interest- she'd been reading her tea leaves recently and something to do with the sky falling kept popping up.

Polaris got better rather quickly and told Sobek about his accident as soon as he'd regained speaking capabilities. He was a heavenly body with the ability to help move and rotate the stars, struck by a comet while he was fixing the rotation of Ursa Major. The impact of the comet had scattered shards and dust into his eyes, rendering him blind. Sobek offered him a place to stay with her, helping him relearn basic survival skills and introducing him to the Progens and their daughter Maat. When he was confident enough, they released him into the custody of the Lair's Astronomer, Tourmaline (much to the latter's chagrin), where he lives out his days as the Astronomer's assistant. They have a decent relationship built on banter and Tourmaline being grumpy that he can't be an antisocial loser anymore. Polaris does like to visit Sobek though! He's very grateful for her help and feels like he can't do enough for her.

Polaris has adjusted to being blind fairly well, though he does spook easily if someone approaches without announcing themselves. His wisdom of the cosmos is beyond even Transmissions, the alien entity disguised as an Imperial. The two converse sometimes, taking comfort in each other's presence and engaging in lengthy discussions with Tourmaline about the universe beyond. He also knows about Tourmaline's crush on the alien, but has promised not to say anything! He is still able to hear the call of the stars with his large, sensitive ears. Though he cannot go very far anymore, he helps those stars that shine overhead maintain their shape and rotations.

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Polaris, designated Alpha Ursae Minoris (α Ursae Minoris, abbreviated Alpha UMi, α UMi), commonly the North Star or Pole Star, is the brightest star in the constellation of Ursa Minor. It is very close to the north celestial pole, making it the current northern pole star. The revised Hipparcos parallax gives a distance to Polaris of about 433 light-years (133 parsecs), while calculations by other methods derive distances around 30% closer. Polaris is a multiple star, comprising the main star (Polaris Aa, a yellow supergiant) in orbit with a smaller companion (Polaris Ab); the pair in orbit with Polaris B (discovered in August 1779 by William Herschel). There were once thought to be two more distant components—Polaris C and Polaris D—but these have been shown not to be physically associated with the Polaris system. Because Polaris lies nearly in a direct line with the axis of the Earth's rotation "above" the North Pole—the north celestial pole—Polaris stands almost motionless in the sky, and all the stars of the northern sky appear to rotate around it. Therefore, it makes an

excellent fixed point from which to draw measurements for celestial navigation and for astrometry. The moving of Polaris towards and, in the future, away from the celestial pole, is due to the precession of the equinoxes.

The celestial pole will move away from α UMi after the 21st century, passing close by Gamma Cephei by about the 41st century, moving towards Deneb by about the 91st century. Historically, the celestial pole was close to Thuban around 2750 BC, and during classical antiquity it was closer to Kochab (β UMi) than to Polaris. It was about the same angular distance from β UMi as to α UMi by the end of late antiquity. The Greek navigator Pytheas in ca. 320 BC described the celestial pole as devoid of stars. However, as one of the brighter stars close to the celestial pole, Polaris was used for navigation at least from late antiquity, and described as ἀεί φανής (aei phanēs) "always visible" by Stobaeus (5th century), and it could reasonably be described as stella polaris from about the High Middle Ages.

In more recent history, in Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, written around 1599, Caesar describes himself as being "as constant as the northern star", though in Caesar's time there was no constant northern star. It was referenced in Nathaniel Bowditch's 1802 book, American Practical Navigator, where it is listed as one of the navigational stars.

At present, Polaris is 0.75° away from the pole of rotation (1.4 times the Moon disc) and hence revolves around the pole in a small circle 1.5° in diameter. Only twice during every sidereal day does Polaris accurately define the true north azimuth; the rest of the time, it is slightly displaced eastward or westward, and the bearing must be corrected using tables or a rough rule of thumb. The best approximate was made using the leading edge of the "Big Dipper" asterism in the constellation Ursa Major as a point of reference. The leading edge (defined by the stars Dubhe and Merak) was referenced to a clock face, and the true azimuth of Polaris worked out for different latitudes.