The Order of the Pole Star (Polar Star, North Star, the " Black Ribbon "), founded in 1748 for civil merit, has since 1844 three classes.
When truly adjusted the theodolite measures the horizontal angle between any two objects, however much they may differ in altitude, as the pole star and any terrestrial object.
This point in our middle latitudes is between the zenith and the north horizon, near a certain star of the second magnitude familiarly known as the Pole Star.
The records preserved in each city were examined, topographical information was diligently collected, and the Jesuit fathers checked their triangulation by meridian altitudes of the sun and pole star and by a system of remeasurements.
The Greeks identified this constellation with the nymph Callisto, placed in the heavens by Zeus in the form of a bear together with her son Arcas as " bear-warder," or Arcturus; they named it Arctos, the she-bear, Helice, from its turning round the pole-star.