Welcome, my name is Janine and in this video we will discuss the constellation known as Ursa Major.
Ursa Major is an ancient constellation and a portion of its pattern, known as the big
dipper, is probably one of the most recognized star patterns in the world. This constellation is very
useful when trying to find other constellations, particularly Ursa Minor, the constellation that
contains Polaris, the north star. First let's get a broad overview of this constellation. As I stated
before it's a very ancient constellation that dates far back in human history. The name Ursa
Major is latin for great bear and it has a variety of names associated with it, including
the Big Dipper, the Wagon, the Plough, Otava and the list goes on and on and they vary depending upon
culture and place. Ursa Major is the third largest constellation in the sky, so it's pretty easy to
find simply because it has the Big Dipper asterism located in it, but what most people don't know is
that it really is a much larger constellation that takes up a good portion of the sky. So when can you
see it? Ursa Major can be seen all year round in the northern hemisphere, and the best way to find
it is to look for the asterism known as the big dipper, right here. This is a very important
constellation because it points to so many other star patterns in the sky. It's particularly useful
when trying to find Polaris, because you use the pointer stars to point you towards the North Star.
Now let's review the pattern of Ursa Major and how to find it in the sky. So here's the official
star map of Ursa Major, and as you're taking a look at it hopefully you notice the seven
brightest stars make up the asterism known as the Big Dipper, but the Big Dipper is only a part
of the pattern within the larger constellation of Ursa Major. Remember Ursa Major is the third
largest constellation in the sky so it takes up a large portion of the night sky. Now let's see if
we can try to identify it. So as you look at this photo you probably can point out the Big Dipper,
right here, but in reality Ursa Major is this whole constellation, so if we were to point it out
here is the great bear, and maybe it doesn't look like a bear to us because it has this long tail,
and I've come across many reasons as to why it may have a long tail. Most bears as we know don't
have a long tail but in this depiction it does, but I've also seen a depiction of Ursa Major like this,
and maybe we could see this would be a bear's head, this could be a saddle on its back, and these are
its legs as well, so just one possibility of a possible star pattern that I've seen.
Here you can see that the Big Dipper is just a smaller pattern within the larger constellation
of Ursa Major. The Big Dipper is such an important star pattern because it can be used to point out
many constellations in the sky. In this example these two stars are called the pointer stars
and they point right towards Polaris, which is the North Star, and the North Stars and the
constellation known as Ursa Minor or the Little Dipper, and as we saw from our mythology section
these two constellations are often associated with each other. So let's get some practice.
Here we can see the Big Dipper is located all the way towards the left side of this
photograph. Can you find the pointer stars and can you use them to lead you towards Polaris?
Polaris is the bright star that's right in the center of this photograph and sometimes
people, I've heard people say "I thought the North Star was the brightest star in the sky",
and it's actually not, but anyways it's important star because it never moves in the sky or at
least it never appears to. So here is the Big Dipper, it points to Polaris, and then here is
the rest of Ursa Minor. If we were to point these constellations out, here we go, and we also notice
that we can't see the entire constellation of Ursa Major in this photograph. We're only seeing
a portion of it right here. So the pointer stars point to Polaris, you can also use Cassiopeia right
here to point you towards Polaris as well, and if you wanted to see some of the other constellations,
here we have Cepheus, right here, which is located next to Cassiopeia, and then this red pattern is a
part of Draco. Draco is a very large constellation and it's difficult to photograph for that reason,
but these five constellations are considered to be circumpolar because you can see them all year
round. Camelo Pardolis is also another circumpolar constellation but I've never been successful in
pointing that out because its stars are so faint, and another thing that's worth talking about
are the differences between Ursa Major and Ursa Minor or really the Big Dipper and Little Dipper.
Ursa Major has this concave handle, it's larger in size and more of its stars are visible, or I should
say of the same magnitude. Ursa Minor, its handle curves in a different way when you compare it to
Ursa Major. It's a smaller constellation and only three of the stars are really visible in the sky.
Here's another comparison when you just see them next to each other, handles are different, okay, and
most of the stars are visible or of the same magnitude, where here just three of them are bright.
Here's another great image just showing you how important the Big Dipper is when it comes to
pointing out all the other constellations in the sky. So we talked about the pointer stars pointing
towards Polaris, and the Polaris is in Ursa Minor, and if you keep continuing along that path you
can find Pegasus, or the Great Square of Pegasus. You can also use the arm or the handle to arc
to Arcturus and then spike to Spica. Arcturus is a bright star in the constellation of Boötes, and
Spica is the brightest star in Virgo, and you can use this image just to help you understand
how you can use the Big Dipper to point to many other constellations in the sky throughout the
entire year. Now let's briefly discuss some of the history and mythologies associated with Ursa Major.
The first known record of this constellation was seen in the Babylonian star catalogues, which was
a catalog of over 71 stars and constellations. It discussed pairs of constellations that rose and
set together, the path of the moon and the planets, it had a solar calendar, all kinds of information
that was important for the timing of agricultural activities. We also see a depiction of Ursa Major
in the Book of Fixed Stars that was written by al-Sufi. He was a Persian astronomer and wrote
the Book of Fixed Stars around 9 64. This was a combination of astronomy knowledge
recorded by Ptolemy in the second century along with indigenous Arabic knowledge of the sky.
In terms of mythologies there is so much to cover about this constellation because there's so many
stories in legends, but one that comes to mind is that from roman mythology about Callisto and Arcas,
and the way this constellation pans out is that Jupiter, who is king of the gods in roman mythology
lusted after a woman named Callisto. Callisto had a son named Arcas, and Jupiter's wife
Juno believed that the son was Jupiter's. So Juno Juno transformed Callisto into a bear
so Jupiter no longer desired her, and one time Arcas encountered his mother in bare form while
hunting and he nearly killed her, but Jupiter instead transformed Arcas into a bear along with
his mother and placed them in the sky in order to protect them. Another legend of Ursa Major that I
discovered was from the Native American Iroquois tribe, and it's about a bear and the three hunters .
It is said that these three stars, right here in Ursa Major, represented hunters. One hunter carried
a bow and arrow, the second carried a pot, and the third carries firewood to light a fire beneath
that pot. I wish I could learn more about this particular legend, but this was the most I was
able to find, and that's what always intrigues me about the stories of the stars is there's such a
variety of them, but remember the mythologies of the stars vary according to time place and
culture. There really is no one true mythology for any constellation, there's just a variety of them.
We've come to the end of our video about Ursa Major so let's review everything we've learned.
So far this constellation is one that can be seen all year round in the northern hemisphere, which
classifies it as a circumpolar constellation. The best way to find Ursa Major is to look for the Big
Dipper asterism, and you want to look towards a north direction. The Big Dipper, remember, is really
useful in helping us find the North Star, which is the star that appears to not move in our sky,
and you do that using the pointer stars. You find the pointer stars in the Big Dipper
and let it guide you towards Ursa Minor or Polaris the star. There are a lot of celestial objects,
most of them are galaxies, which are really faint, however you would need some sort of magnification
to see these galaxies. There is one planetary nebula within this region of the constellation,
so try to use your binoculars or telescope to find that particular planetary nebula. So I wish
you luck in finding Ursa Major. Remember that it is different than the Big Dipper, but you
can use the Big Dipper to find the rest of the constellation. It really is a large constellation,
the fourth largest in the sky. So hopefully you can seek out some dark skies to help you find
the entire constellation of Ursa Major, and before we wrap up I just want to give a big shout out
and thank you to David Coughlin for allowing me to use some of some of his photos that he
has donated to this video about Ursa Major, so be sure to check him out on twitter. I wish you
luck finding Ursa Major. It really is such a beautiful constellation and has
lots to offer for the amateur stargazer out there. Good luck and keep looking up.