Thousands of years ago, Earth's spin axis pointed in a slightly different direction , and Vega was the North Star. Although Polaris is not the brightest star on the sky, it is easily located because it is nearly aligned with two stars in the cup of the Big Dipper , and is the last star in the handle of the Little Dipper . In the above picture, Polaris is the brightest star on the right, above the fleeting streak of a Perseid meteor . The surface of Polaris slowly pulsates , causing the star to change its brightness by a few percent over the course of a few days. This rare Cepheid variability of Polaris is, oddly enough, itself changing .
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