The celestial pole was near Thuban around 2750 BCE,[35] and during classical antiquity it had been a little nearer to Kochab (β UMi) than to Polaris, While even now about ten° from both star.[36] It was in regards to the exact angular distance from β UMi regarding α UMi by the end of late antiquity. The Greek navigator Pytheas in ca. 320 BC exp