Your Guide to This Summer’s Stars.

Story by John Haley

It’s 4:30 a.m., and I can’t sleep. I roll out of bed, put some clothes on, and step outside to watch the Earth move. Most of the year, in the pre-dawn darkness, I can look above the pine tree in my neighbor’s yard and see Polaris. On this day in late July, however, while the Sun hasn’t risen, it’s too bright to make it out. It’s there, though. It always is. Unlike every star in the sky, Polaris doesn’t appear to move; everything moves around it. Because it’s directly above the North Pole, it holds a constant place in our sky, day or night. While throughout the dark I can watch the Big Dipper spin on the record of the sky around it (or more correctly recognize that I’m on the turntable of the Earth), I know this bright morning that the point of the North Star is in the same spot it always is and that the other stars are making circular paths around it.

Read the full story in the digital magazine above.