Star of the North: An explosive thriller set in North Korea

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They say life imitates art, and that’s the uncanny case with Star of the North, the new thriller from North Korea expert D.B. John… eerily timely… As the real-life situation on the Korean Peninsula continues to fluctuate, you could sit patiently and wait for diplomacy updates — or you can read this sneak peek of Star of the North. Your choice.” - Entertainment Weekly But Polaris is a good North Star because it’s the sky’s 48th brightest star. So it’s noticeable in the sky. It served well as the North Star, for example, when the Europeans first sailed across the Atlantic over five centuries ago.

At present, Polaris is regarded as our North Star, and sometimes goes by the name Stella Polaris, Lodestar, or Pole Star. Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t the brightest star in the night sky, and only ranks 48 on the list of brightest stars.The stars and constellations in the night sky appear to rotate around the North Star throughout the year. A common misconception about the North Star is that it is the brightest star in the sky, but that is not true. a b c d Vallenari, A.; etal. (Gaia collaboration) (2023). "Gaia Data Release 3. Summary of the content and survey properties". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 674: A1. arXiv: 2208.00211. Bibcode: 2023A&A...674A...1G. doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202243940. S2CID 244398875. Gaia DR3 record for this source at VizieR. a b Turner, D. G.; Savoy, J.; Derrah, J.; Abdel‐Sabour Abdel‐Latif, M.; Berdnikov, L. N. (2005). "The Period Changes of Polaris". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 117 (828): 207. Bibcode: 2005PASP..117..207T. doi: 10.1086/427838.

Once we’ve found the Plough, all we need to do is draw a line between Merak (β UMa) and Dubhe (α UMa), the two stars at the end of the Plough’s blade, and then out through the blade’s top.The next fairly bright star we see is Polaris. The Plains Cree call the star in Nehiyawewin: acâhkos êkâ kâ-âhcît "the star that does not move" ( syllabics: ᐊᒑᐦᑯᐢ ᐁᑳ ᑳ ᐋᐦᒌᐟ). [53] In Mi'kmawi'simk the star is named Tatapn. [54] Argyle, Bob; etal. (August 29, 2019). An Anthology of Visual Double Stars. Cambridge University Press. p.265. ISBN 9781108601702. This article is about the Minnesota state motto. For other uses, see Étoile du Nord. The motto, as it appears on the Seal of MinnesotaIn the Hindu Puranas, it became personified under the name Dhruva ("immovable, fixed"). [44] In the later medieval period, it became associated with the Marian title of Stella Maris "Star of the Sea" (so in Bartholomeus Anglicus, c. 1270s) [45] Polaris marks the spot that is due north. As you face Polaris and stretch your arms sideways, your right hand points due east, and your left hand points due west. Then, an about-face from Polaris steers you due south. View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Robert Watcher in Seaforth, Ontario, Canada, captured this photo of Polaris and the International Space Station on May 17, 2021. He wrote: “A perfect night to capture the International Space Station. We had the trajectory down pat for moving through my frame during the middle part of its 6-minute crossing. Although I had no clue that tonight it would pass right through the view of the North Star (Polaris) – the white static star in the middle that all stars rotate around during the night – so that was pretty special.” Very special indeed. Thank you, Robert! View at EarthSky Community Photos. | David Cox at Deep River Ontario, Canada, took this great timelapse image. He wrote: “Polaris time lapse captured a single, impressive Draconid meteor streak over the Ottawa River at Deep River Ontario, Canada, early in the evening of October 8, 2021.” Thank you, David! A star to steer by John uses three memorable primary characters to tell a remarkable story about the most opaque country on Earth: North Korea … The lives of these people collide in a harrowing thriller that exposes an amazingly corrupt regime that embraces savage brutality and nearly every kind of lucrative criminal enterprise … a superior thriller. Booklist The single point of light that we see as Polaris is a triple star system, or three stars orbiting a common center of mass. The primary star, Polaris A, is a supergiant with about six times the mass of our sun. A close companion, Polaris Ab, orbits 2 billion miles from Polaris. You are unlikely to ever see this star, because it is too close to Polaris. As you travel northward, Polaris climbs higher in the sky. If you go as far north as the North Pole, you’ll see Polaris directly overhead.

In traditional Lakota star knowledge, Polaris is named "Wičháȟpi owáŋžila". This translates to "The Star that Sits Still". This name comes from a Lakota story in which he married Tapun San Win "Red Cheeked Woman". However she fell from the heavens, and in his grief he stared down from "waŋkátu" (the above land) forever. [52] Star of The North reads like a cross between Child-44 and I am Pilgrim and is every bit as good as both of them. Read this book and you will not only feel that you've been to North Korea you will also never, ever want to go there. Brutally realistic, fascinatingly detailed, it's a fantastic thriller whose fantasy is all the more powerful for being based on truth. Simon Toyne, bestselling author of the Sanctus trilogy and Solomon Creed series Ancient navigators observed that all the stars in the sky seem to circle around the North Star, which was known to ancient Greeks as Kynosoura, meaning dog’s tail. In the mid-16th century, the term was used for the North Star and the Little Dipper. By the 17th century, the North Star was used figuratively for anything that was the focus of attention. If you can find Polaris, the North Star, you can find north. Sailors have used the stars to navigate their way for centuries. Credit: Samuli Vainionpää / Getty What is the North Star? Extend the line until you reach a star of similar brightness (about 5 x the distance of these 2 stars

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Polaris hasn’t been the only North Star—and thousands of years from now, other stars will take its place. Bond, Howard E; Nelan, Edmund P; Remage Evans, Nancy; Schaefer, Gail H; Harmer, Dianne (2018). "Hubble Space Telescope Trigonometric Parallax of Polaris B, Companion of the Nearest Cepheid". The Astrophysical Journal. 853 (1): 55. arXiv: 1712.08139. Bibcode: 2018ApJ...853...55B. doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/aaa3f9. S2CID 118875464. a b Wielen, R.; Jahreiß, H.; Dettbarn, C.; Lenhardt, H.; Schwan, H. (2000). "Polaris: Astrometric orbit, position, and proper motion". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 360: 399–410 [400–402, 406]. arXiv: astro-ph/0002406. Bibcode: 2000A&A...360..399W. The apparent motion of Polaris towards and, in the future, away from the celestial pole, is due to the precession of the equinoxes. [35] The celestial pole will move away from α UMi after the 21st century, passing close by Gamma Cephei by about the 41st century, moving towards Deneb by about the 91st century. Evans, Nancy Remage; Guinan, Edward; Engle, Scott; Wolk, Scott J.; Schlegel, Eric; Mason, Brian D.; Karovska, Margarita; Spitzbart, Bradley (2010). "Chandra Observation of Polaris: Census of Low-mass Companions". The Astronomical Journal. 139 (5): 1968. Bibcode: 2010AJ....139.1968E. doi: 10.1088/0004-6256/139/5/1968.

Its name in traditional pre-Islamic Arab astronomy was al-Judayy الجدي ("the kid", in the sense of a juvenile goat ["le Chevreau"] in Description des Etoiles fixes), [48] and that name was used in medieval Islamic astronomy as well. [49] [50] In those times, it was not yet as close to the north celestial pole as it is now, and used to rotate around the pole. The range of brightness of Polaris is given as 1.86–2.13, [4] but the amplitude has changed since discovery. Prior to 1963, the amplitude was over 0.1 magnitude and was very gradually decreasing. After 1966, it very rapidly decreased until it was less than 0.05 magnitude; since then, it has erratically varied near that range. It has been reported that the amplitude is now increasing again, a reversal not seen in any other Cepheid. [6] Polaris and its surrounding integrated flux nebula Daniélou, Alain (1991). The Myths and Gods of India: The Classic Work on Hindu Polytheism. Princeton/Bollingen (1964); Inner Traditions/Bear & Co. p.186. ISBN 978-0-892-813544.

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A few Octobers ago, my family and I were visiting some friends in the mountains of Vermont. After dinner, I went out to get a better look at the skies. Extraordinary ... smart, sophisticated, suspenseful - and important. If you try one new thing this year, make it Star of the North.” - Lee Child