Earth's present northern polestar, or North Star, at the end of the “handle” of the so-called Little Dipper in the constellation Ursa Minor. Polaris is actually a triple star, the brighter of two visual components being a spectroscopic binary with a period of about 30 years and a Cepheid variable with a period of about 4 days. Its changes in brightness are too slight to be detected with the unaided eye. Apparent visual magnitude of the Polaris system is 2.00. See also polestar.