The two stars that form the pouring side of the bowl point to Polaris, the north star. Polaris is a rather faint star about five times farther away than the distance between the pointers themselves, and marks the tip of the handle of the Little Dipper. The Big and Little Dippers pour into each other, just as the Big Bear and the Little Bear ceaselessly turn around and around the northern sky. The Guard stars of the Little Dipper protect Polaris from the Great Bear, just in case he might try to catch the North Star for himself. The size of each star indicates its relative magnitude .
Constellation names are light blue .
Messier object numbers are pink . Globular clusters are gold starbursts . Open clusters are dotted white circles. Planetary nebula are green diamonds . Bright nebula are magenta squares .