Before the advent of city lights drowning out the heavens there were men who walked this earth and looked up in wonder at the night sky. They connected the dots of light above them and created pictures in the mind. Some of these creations gained widespread acceptance and were taught by Magi and others. Today 88 of these constellations are internationally accepted. This article deals with the northern

constellation   
Ursa Major.

Although it is not seen by observers in the far southern hemisphere, Ursa Major (The Great Bear)
is probably the most recognizable of all constellations for those north of the Equator and one of the earliest to be learned.
Here is what one astronomy book says about the antiquity of this grouping and its designation as a bear:

It is an extraordinary fact, indicating the extreme antiquity of this designation and the persistence of folk memory, that it was known thus in the most widely separated parts of the world: Chaldeans, Persians, Indians, Phoenicians, Egyptians and North Americans all knew the constellation as a bear.-SB Sidgewick Introducing Astronomy (1957)

North American lore has this to say: they saw the four brightest stars as the bear and the stars in the handle as a hunting party, one carrying a bow and arrow, the second a pot to cook the bear and the third fire to light the tinder beneath the pot; they said that the bear would emerge from its den in the spring, be chased all summer and in the fall when it was mortally wounded its blood dripping on the forest would paint the leaves red.

There also is a constellation Ursa Minor, the Little Bear, which contains the North Celestial Pole, and also the star Polaris which is within a degree or so of it. Circling the pole at the other end of Ursa Minor are Kocab and Pherkad. These are sometimes called 'the guardians of the pole'. Kocab is more orange in colour than its companion.

Ursa Major sits in the sky above the pole during summer evenings and reaches its lowest point (dipping below the horizon in some latitudes) during the winter. There is an imaginary line from Merak through Dubhe,the two brightest stars (these stars spaced five degrees apart). This line points due north and is used to locate Polaris (The Pole Star); For this reason these two stars are sometimes called 'the pointers'.

A test of how clear your sky is (or how good your eyes are) will be found at the second star from the end of the dipper's handle. Listed together in the table below
Mizar
and Alcor are only a fifth of a degree apart and the brighter of the two was the first binary to be spit into components (Mizar A and Mizar B) by a telescope. Spectroscopes later revealed that these are both doubles themselves -the closest pair being a mind boggling seven or eight thousandths of a second of arc apart.

The Seven Brightest Stars

The seven stars alpha through eta form a well known asterism¹ which goes by many names. It is worth noting that of these seven stars only Alkaid and Dubhe are independent. The other five move through space together. Here is a list of some of the names for this grouping.

• The Big Dipper
• The Plough (UK)
• The Great Cart (Germany)
• Kalavagnen i.e. men's cart (Scandinavia)
• The Sapta Richi i.e. Seven Sages (Asia)
• The Haunch (Egypt)
• The Drinking Gourd (Colonial America)
• Hunting Party and Bear (Native American)

Greek Mythology

There was a young maiden named Callisto in the employ of Artemis.The tale tells how she was seduced by Zeus, the King of the Gods. This made his wife Hera very jealous. Callisto gave birth to a son Arcas. She would have met some dreadful fate at the whim of Hera except that Zeus had changed Callisto into a bear thus hiding her from his wife.

Many years passed and Arcas grew into a handsome young hunter. As chance would have it his path crossed that of Callisto one day, and the mother wanted a closer look at her now grown son. As she approached however he did not recognise her and prepared to slay this bear which was attacking him. Zeus, however, was watching and stopped Arcas from killing his mother. Hera, also, now knew where to find her rival and would have killed her on the spot but Zeus grabbed the bear by the tail and flung her into the heavens. Then he changed the son into a bear cub and did likewise with him.

Hera, then went to Tethys, the wife of Oceanus, and together the two goddesses cooked up a curse making the two bears forever travel in circles never to dip their snouts into the ocean. Thus was explained why in northern lattitudes the constellations are always above the horizon.

DATA

• Latin: Ursa Major.
• genitive: Ursae Majoris
• short form: UMa
• area: 1,280 sq deg.
• coordinates: RA 10.67, Dec=55 N.
• zodiac: no-North circumpolar

Stars and Nebulae

Table One: Major Stars

Table Two: Nebulae of Ursa Major

The objects in the second table are too dim for the naked eye. These
Galaxies
and one Planetary Nebula have mainly been catalogued under Messier numbers
(or NGC Numbers which was a more recent catalogue).