Featured Constellations |
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There can be little doubt that the "big dipper"
star pattern is the most famous and easily
recognized celestial group (Orion and the
Pleiades being the only close competitors).
These seven stars (six of the second magnitude, one of the third) are however merely the north-eastern portion of a constellation three times as large. Ursa Major proper contains an additional seven third magnitude stars to the west and south of the dipper group, and many fainter ones. In form, these additions to the dipper fall into two patterns: the west stars that form the nose of the great bear, and the south stars which form his legs. The "head" stars only boast one third magnitude star, the nose itself (Omicron Ursae Majoris) - if your sky is light polluted, you may need to squint to connect the nose to the bear via a pair of fourth magnitude stars. The legs are easier, and both end in widely separated pairs of stars, forming a distinctive pattern. |
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From the vicinity of the head, third magnitude Theta and
a very close 4th magnitude partner are the knee and the
similarly bright and wider pair of Iota and Kappa are
the front paw. The rear leg is a longer chain,
beginning with Delta in the dipper and arcing past Chi
(4th magnitude), Psi (3rd magnitude), and finally out to
the wide pair of 3rd magnitude stars Lambda and Mu.
As a final add-on to the constellation, the isolated 3rd
magnitude Nu and 4th magnitude Xi (an interesting
binary) are located in the extreme south of Ursa Major,
on the border with Leo, and are hard to incorporate into
the bear figure at all. Some folks try to make that the
other rear leg, even longer than the already stretched
ones elsewhere. The handle of the dipper, incidentally,
is far too long to be a normal bear tail - some
classical writers have suggested that Zeus must have
flung the bear into the heavens by the tail, thus
stretching it. I think that's stretching it.
Over the years, a strange phrase has been suggested to
assist you in learning the names of the dipper stars:
"To be of miraculous effect, make all misers
alcoholics". This does indeed sound vaguely like
"Duhbe, Merak, Phecda, Megrez, Alioth, Mizar, Alkaid",
but the mnemonic phrase suggests something odd involving
getting stingy people smashed, and quite frankly, I
think you'd be better off saving the liquor money and
just look at a star chart a few times.
Mythologically, it is interesting that many cultures
around the world have identified the stars of Ursa Major
as a bear: the Arabs, Greeks, Romans, and also many
native American cultures. The Greek tradition has the
bear starting life as Callisto, the daughter of a king;
she was transformed into a bear to hide her from Juno, a
goddess who had it out for her. Unfortunately, while
the bear/Callisto was hanging out in the woods, her own
son was out hunting - and let's just say he could Bearly
recognize his mom in the bear suit...BLAMMO. So the
bear and her son both (he is Ursa Minor) got celestial
parking spaces. However, Juno was still furious, and
refused to allow the bears to ever return to Earth - and
indeed, these star groups are circumpolar for Europeans
and Californians alike. They circle endlessly above the
northern horizon, doomed never to eat another strawberry
or rifle through another garbage can.
To find out about celestial objects you can find in our
featured constellations, go to Deep
Sky Objects.
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