The first multi-star system to be photographed We have written an article with many other fun ways to use the sky for navigation. If you create an imaginary line between the two stars and extend it, it points almost exactly to the Polaris, also known as the Northern Star because it is always located to the North. Dubhe and Merak, the two stars that form the side of the big dipper opposite of the handle have a function in star navigation that helped sailors and travelers to find North when compasses weren’t available. The brightest star in Ursa Major is actually Epsilon Ursae Majorisįollowing up on the last point. However, in Ursa Major, the nomenclature is a bit different as Alpha Ursae Majoris and Beta Ursae Majoris were used for the stars Dubhe and Merak which are pointer stars that help in star navigation to find the Northern Star. The scientific name for stars in a constellation is usually given in order following the Greek Alphabet based on the star’s brightness (brightest is alpha, then beta, gamma, and so on).
Usually, different civilizations have different names for the constellations. Both Native-Americans and Greeks had myths involving the bear. One curious thing about Ursa Major is the fact two different civilizations in different continents and without contact with one another associated it with the same animal: The bear. The only two constellations bigger than it are Virgo and Hydra. Ursa Major is the third biggest constellation in terms of area, making it one of the most iconic marks in the night sky. Thanks to this, Ursa Major can be easily used as a natural clock. It circles around the northern star (Polaris) counter-clockwise and it takes almost exactly 24 hours to make a lap. It also does something very useful and curious. In the Northern hemisphere (everywhere North of Colombia), the constellation can be seen all year round. The “Big Dipper” nickname for the constellation comes from native-American mythology where they also saw it as a bear but believed the three trailing stars of Ursa Majoris were three hunters with one of them carrying a cooking pot to cook him in case they got lucky. This is where the confusion comes from as many people mistakenly refer to the Big Dipper as a constellation or they call it Ursa Major forgetting about the other 13 big stars or so that form it. The Big Dipper is simply a fun pattern in the sky that is easy to find, but it is only part of the Ursa Major constellation which is shaped like a bear. Other famous asterisms include the Northern Cross, which is part of the Cygnus constellation and Orion’s Belt. Asterisms don’t officially form a constellation, but they are usually part of other constellations. An asterism is a small group of stars that form a recognizable pattern in the sky and that are easy to point to. The Big Dipper is not a constellation, it is an asterism. Map of the Ursa Major constellation Why is Ursa Major also called ‘The Big Dipper’? A group of stars that are shaped like a cooking pot.
Second, Ursa Major was used a lot as a navigational tool by sailors and travelers who used it to find North before compasses were invented.Īnd finally, because it contains The Big Dipper. For example, Alpha Ursae Majoris is also referred to as Dubhe which comes from the Arabic word for ‘bear’.įirst, because it is visible for most of the year and from almost the whole world. Some stars also have “proper names”, which are shorter, common names and generally easier to remember. So the stars in Ursa Major are called Alpha Ursae Majoris, Beta Ursae Majoris, etc. The stars on a constellation are regularly named using that constellation’s name, prefixed by a letter from the Greek alphabet. In astronomy, Ursa Major is also referred to as Ursae Majoris and the stars that form it are named with that label. Ancient people thought it was shaped like a bear and that’s exactly where its name comes from as it means The Big Bear in ancient Greek. Ursa Major is one of the most famous constellations in the sky. This is why the ancients spent a lot of time finding shapes of animals and heroes and called them constellations.Ī constellation is simply a group of stars in the sky that when you use your imagination form a certain shape. It is human nature to try to find things in the unknown that we can relate to. It is always fun to look up at the sky and find shapes in the stars.
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