The name refers either to the constellation Ursa Major, the " Great Bear ", which is prominent in the northern portion of the celestial sphere, or to the constellation Ursa Minor, the " Little Bear ", which contains Polaris, the Pole Star, also known as the North Star .< ref >

It appears, inter alia, as an illustration in Jorge Luis Borges ' famous essay " A New Refutation of Time ", and may have inspired H. P. Lovecraft's 1918 short story " Polaris ".

In most of the northern hemisphere, Polaris, the " North Star ", and the rest of the stars of the constellation Ursa Minor can be seen to rotate around the celestial pole and are all visible at both culminations, as long as the sky is dark enough.

Two further songs from the album, " Polaris " and " End of the World ", were issued as singles in June and September, respectively.

Polaris, a side project of Mark Mulcahy's Miracle Legion, served as the show's " house band ", providing the theme song and many other tunes heard throughout the series and even appearing in " Hard Day's Pete " as a local four-piece playing out of a garage.

This cassette includes the Polaris songs " Hey Sandy ", " She is Staggering ", and " Coronado II ".

The Punishment Due ", " Take No Prisoners ", and " Rust in Peace ... Polaris ", which were released as bonus tracks on the 2004 remaster )

Polaris performed many of the songs featured on the show, including the theme song, " Hey Sandy ", and its members took " TV names ": Mulcahy was " Muggy ", Boutier was " Jersey ", and McCaffrey was " Harris Polaris.

" In addition to appearing in the opening credits of each show, the band featured prominently in the episode " A Hard Day's Pete ", in which Little Pete ( Danny Tamberelli ) is mesmerized by a garage band's song ( Polaris ' " Summerbaby ") and forms his own band to keep the tune in his memory.

Polaris ' mean position ( taking account of precession and proper motion ) will reach a maximum declination of + 89 ° 32 ' 23 ", so 1657 " or 0. 4603 ° from the celestial north pole, in February 2102.

* " Rust in Peace ... Polaris ", from the album Rust in Peace by Megadeth

* " Polaris ", from the album Futures by Jimmy Eat World

* " Polaris ", from the album Simple Things by Zero 7

The duo's songs have appeared in many films and television shows such as Blue Crush, Raising Helen, Smallville, Roswell, Obsessed, I'm With Lucy ), " Give It Away " ( Top Gear, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation ), " Polaris " ( Sex and the City ), " Pop Art Blue " " Waterloo Road ", " In The Waiting Line " ( Garden State, Sex and the City, House and Numb3rs ).

Pherkad and Kochab are sometimes called the " Guardians of the Pole ", as they appear to circle around the north star Polaris as the Earth rotates.

Rather, the United Kingdom received a US $ 14 million discount from the US on the acquisition of submarine launched ballistic missile system Polaris missiles per a now-declassified addendum to the 1966 agreement.

Scarlet Witch and Polaris have Blink teleport Magneto and Quicksilver away from Genosha.

Over this cycle, Earth's north axial pole moves from where it is now, within 1 ° of Polaris, in a circle around the ecliptic pole, with an angular radius of about 23. 5 degrees.

The arrangements were almost identical to that for Polaris, the United Kingdom procured the Trident system from America and fitted them to their own submarines, the Vanguard-class.

While it is well known that the two outer stars of the ' dipper ' point to the modern-day pole star Polaris, it is less well known that the two inner stars, Phecda and Megrez, point to Thuban, just 15 degrees of arc from Megrez.

By visually tracing a line from Merak through Dubhe and continuing, one's eye will land on Polaris, accurately indicating true north.

At present the pole star is Polaris, but around 12, 000 BC the pole was pointed only five degrees away from Vega.

The V bombers were to carry the GAM-87 Skybolt, an air-launched ballistic missile, to update their strike potential as new innovations in the Cold War made their early style of operation less viable ; however Skybolt was cancelled by the US and the Royal Navy became Britain's main provider of the nuclear deterrent, using UGM-27 Polaris intercontinental ballistic missiles from nuclear submarines in the 1970s.

After the cancellation of the Blue Streak missile program and the cancellation of the American Skybolt and with the Blue Steel missile already in service, six squadrons of Vulcan B2s were re-assigned to the low-level ( 200 ft and lower ) penetration role and were re-equipped with the WE. 177B strategic laydown bomb from 1966 until being replaced in the strategic role in 1969 by the Polaris missile launched from nuclear submarines of the Royal Navy.

* November 15 – A Polaris missile is test-launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida

* December 21 – Britain agrees to purchase Polaris missiles from the U. S.

In the early 1960s U. S. nuclear submarines armed with mid-range nuclear missiles of type Polaris A-1 were deployed not far from the Swedish west coast.

The north celestial pole currently is within a degree of the bright star Polaris ( named from the Latin stella polaris, meaning " pole star ").

Polaris can, of course, only be seen from locations in the northern hemisphere.

Currently Polaris is extremely well suited to mark the position of the north celestial pole, as Polaris is a moderately bright star with a visual magnitude of 2. 1 ( variable ), and it is located about one degree from the pole.

When Polaris becomes the north star again around 27, 800, due to its proper motion it then will be farther away from the pole than it is now, while in 23, 600 BC it came closer to the pole.

Coeus fled to the north from Zeus, and was regarded as the north star Polaris.

When Skybolt was in turn unilaterally cancelled by U. S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, Macmillan negotiated with President John F. Kennedy the purchase of Polaris missiles from the United States under the Nassau agreement in December 1962.

As depicted on the flag, its stars can be used as a guide by the novice to locate Polaris and determine true north, which varies considerably from a magnetic north.

In Hindu astronomy, the Sapta ( seven rishis ) form the constellation of Ursa Major, which are distinct from Dhruva ( Polaris ).

Transit provided continuous navigation satellite service from 1964, initially for Polaris submarines and later for civilian use as well.

The north celestial pole is located very close to the Pole star ( Polaris or North Star ), so, from the northern hemisphere all circumpolar stars appear to rotate around Polaris.

In modern music, Canadian electronic / pop musician Dan Snaith, aka Caribou ( musician ), entitled the last track on his 2007 Polaris Prize winning Andorra ( album ) as " Niobe ".

* The Emancipation suite, a series of songs present on Finnish power metal band Stratovarius's 2009 album Polaris.

The line-up on this album proved to be their most stable, remaining the same until the release of Polaris in 2009.

In 2010 the album was re-released along with different live material recorded during the Polaris Tour.

* Polaris Music Prize – award annually given to the best full-length Canadian album based on artistic merit

On July 10, 2007, The Dears ' album Gang of Losers was named to the shortlist for the 2007 Polaris Music Prize.

The album was named as a longlisted nominee for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize.

Music from The Adventures of Pete & Pete, released in 1999 on Mulcahy's Mezzotint label, contains many of the songs Polaris recorded for the show and is the group's only album release.

This album was short-listed for the 2010 Polaris Music Prize.

With these new recruits, they released their second album, Nexus Polaris, which was hugely successful ( mainly thanks to Nuclear Blast's promotions ) and is largely considered their best album to date by fans.

The album will come with a second disc consisting entirely of symphonic renditions of the tracks from the primary disc, which suggests a return to the more symphonic style exhibited by the band on their 1998 album Nexus Polaris.

In October 2009, The Kovenant were confirmed to be performing their Nexus Polaris album with the original members at the Inferno Festival in Norway, spring of 2010.

Her album Woke Myself Up was shortlisted for the 2007 Polaris Music Prize .< ref >

* Nexus Polaris ( The Kovenant album )

* Polaris ( Kangta album )

* Polaris ( Stratovarius album )

* " Polaris " ( song ), from the album Twilight of the Innocents by Ash

On June 16, the album was named as a longlisted nominee ( one of 40 ) for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize.