The North(ern) Star is the prominent pole star that lies closest in the sky to the north celestial pole, an which appears (approximately) directly overhead to an observer at the Earth's North Pole. The current North Star is Polaris, which lies about two-thirds of a degree from the pole at the end of the "bob" of the Little Dipper asterism in the constellation Ursa Minor. Polaris has a visual magnitude of 1.97 (second magnitude). (Some people mistakenly think that Polaris is the brightest star in the night sky. This title belongs to Sirius, and there are many others stars also brighter than Polaris.)