Look for the 'Other Dipper' this summer: How to find Ursa Minor, the Little Bear with a little help from the North Star

An illustration of two constellations in the night sky; one looks roughly like a bear, the other like a 'square' with a tail.

Earlier this month, we spoke of Ursa Major, the Big Bear, so this week we take a look at the Little Bear, Ursa Minor. Astronomy neophytes sometimes mistake the Pleiades star cluster for the Little Dipper because the brightest Pleiades stars resemble a tiny, skewed dipper.

But in reality, most people have never seen the Little Dipper, because most of its stars are too dim to be seen through light-polluted skies.