They are part of a group of stars called "The Seven," featured in master navigator Nainoa Thompson's second star line. Today, the stars in Ursa Major feature in Polynesian wayfinding, according to the Polynesian Voyaging Society. Other Native American peoples saw the same stars as loons, a canoe, wolves, bison, elk or caribou, according to Western Washington University. The Mi'kmaq people, whose traditional lands are in the northeastern part of North America, also describe the stars in Ursa Major as a great bear (or Mother Bear, depending on the translation) and the hunters that pursued her, according to Digital Museums Canada. And in ancient Chinese astronomy, the constellation depicts a celestial bureaucrat carried on a cloud. For example, according to the Swinburne University of Technology, Ursa Major was known to ancient Egyptians as an ox and ox handler, depicted in paintings found in the tomb of the pharaoh Seti I. The stars that make up the constellation Ursa Major were described as a "great bear" by ancient Greek astronomer Claudius Ptolemy in his classic studies of the night sky, and Greek myths tell the story of a nymph named Callisto who was transformed into a bear and hidden in the stars by Zeus, according to .īut the same stars have also been described and used for storytelling or navigation by many other groups and cultures. (Image credit: Photo by Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images/Getty Images) The Constellations (Plate VI) Ursa Major, from A Celestial Atlas by Alexander Jamieson, was published in 1822 (hand-colored engraving). There are 60 arc minutes in a degree and 60 arc seconds in an arc minute. Its units are degrees, arc minutes and arc seconds. Like Earth's latitude, declination measures north and south. It's measured in hours, minutes and seconds.ĭeclination tells you how high an object will rise in the sky. Right ascension is to the sky what longitude is to the surface of Earth, corresponding to east and west directions. For example, an object with a magnitude of -1 is brighter than one with a magnitude of +2. The lower the magnitude, the brighter the object. Magnitude tells you how bright an object appears from Earth. To find the objects of interest, it's helpful to know their magnitude, right ascension (RA) and declination (Dec). If you need equipment, our best binoculars and best telescopes guides may help. For the best view of these objects, we recommend using binoculars or a telescope. Ursa Major observing targetsĪstronomers have identified several other objects of interest near the stars of Ursa Major. Viewers in the Northern Hemisphere should look generally north to see the constellation, which skywatchers can spot most easily by looking for the Big Dipper (also known as the Plough, among other names). According to, over the course of a year, Ursa Major looks as if it were rotating around the north celestial pole, or the star Polaris. The constellation Ursa Major can be seen in its entirety from the Northern Hemisphere, in the second stellar quadrant. The constellation Ursa Major can be seen in its entirety from the Northern Hemisphere. The Big Dipper is the tail and back part of the body of Ursa Major. In this case, the Big Dipper is part of the larger Ursa Major. Sometimes these patterns are just part of a bigger constellation. It's basically just a pattern of bright stars that aren't official constellations. The Big Dipper is what we call an asterism. The constellation is only partially visible there.) What's the difference between Ursa Major and the Big Dipper? (You are not so lucky if you live in the Southern Hemisphere. This constellation is circumpolar, meaning that over the course of the night, it travels in a circle around the North Star and never sets. If you are in the Northern Hemisphere, you can see Ursa Major all year. When is the best time to view Ursa Major? The constellation will be oriented differently depending on the time of night you look, but you can reference a star wheel, a free astronomy program like Stellarium, or any number of star-finding phone apps to determine the constellation's orientation. For me, the easiest part of Ursa Major to find is the Big Dipper. The first thing you want to do is look north. Mindy Townsend is an astronomer at Dudley Observatory, Siena College in upstate New York, U.S.
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