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the sky calm to learn more about our
online classes we offer welcome my name
is Janine and in this video we will
learn about the constellation known as
Ursa Minor also sometimes called the
Little Dipper Ursa Minor is an ancient
constellation and it's important one to
know
it contains the star called Polaris
which is also known as the North Star
and this is the only star in the sky
that appears not to move knowing the
location of this star can be very
helpful for navigational purposes since
it always indicates where the northern
direction is Ursa Minor is an ancient
constellation and the earliest records
date back to the ancient Babylonians
it's recognized in many cultures
throughout human history the name Ursa
Minor is Latin for lesser bear and in
the 2nd century it was included in
Tommy's 48 constellations and is now
counted among the 88 modern
constellations this constellation is so
important because it contains Polaris
the North Star and this star right here
does not appear to move in the sky and
it's also called often called the Little
Dipper which is technically an asterism
not its true name but we can use the
Little Dipper because that's certainly
what it looks like so when can you see
Ursa Minor it can be seen all year round
in the northern hemisphere and the best
way to find it art is to use the pointer
stars in Ursa Major which is also called
the Big Dipper and these two stars will
point directly to the North Star you can
also use Cassiopeia to help you navigate
tour
towards the direction of Polaris as well
sometimes this constellation can be
challenging to see because as you're
looking at this picture three of the
stars are pretty bright of second
magnitude but the other four stars are
pretty faint so sometimes when you're
looking at it you can really only see
three stars out of the seven that makes
up this star pattern let's examine one
of the more famous legends about Ursa
Minor that comes from Roman mythology
it's about a woman named Callisto and
her son arcus Jupiter the king of the
gods in Roman mythology lusted after a
woman named Callisto and Callisto had a
son named Marcus and Jupiter's wife Juno
believed that the Sun was Jupiter's so
Juno transform Callisto into a bear so
Jupiter would no longer desire her arcus
encountered his mother in bear form
while he was hunting in the forest and
he nearly killed her so Jupiter decided
to transform arcus into a bear to
protect both mother and son from his
wife Juno and he placed them both in the
sky together this is just one version of
the story I read about and in reality
there's a variety of myths and legends
that exist about Ursa Major and Ursa
Minor the mythologies of the star vary
according to time place and culture and
there is really no one true mythology
story for any constellation there's just
a variety of them now it's time to get
familiar with a pattern of Ursa Minor so
here is the official star map of the
constellation Ursa Minor and you can see
it contains seven stars in the pattern
but remember constellations are really
like borders of countries so all the
stars that fall within this white
section are part of the constellation
and if you look at the magnitude scale
right here and compare it to the stars
in Ursa Minor you can see that really
only three of the stars are of
or I should say of lower magnitude which
means that they are brighter the other
four stars are pretty faint so this can
be challenging when you're looking for
Ursa Minor it also has that ladle shape
so you kind of have the the cup of the
ladle and then here would be the handle
and it kind of curves in this direction
so here we have a picture of Ursa Minor
are you able to see the three main
bright stars in it and then point out
the other four fainter stars here's what
Ursa Minor looks like and right here
this is Polaris That star that's
oriented over the North celestial pole
which in turn makes it appear not to
move let's get some more practice so
here again we have Ursa Minor can you
point out that ladle shape the dipper
shape so right here we have these four
stars and then the handle curves upward
towards Polaris now the best way to find
this constellation is using the little
or the Big Dipper also which is part of
a pattern within the bigger
constellation of Ursa Major so whenever
you talk about Ursa Minor it's usually
with Ursa Major not only because of the
legend but because you use these two
constellations to help navigate and to
find each other so what we're looking at
here is a collection of constellations
that can be seen throughout the year so
the serpent polar constellations they
lie very close to Polaris so you can see
them all year round in the northern
hemisphere so if you're looking at this
picture the star that's right in the
middle is Polaris so from there can you
find the handle and then the cut part of
Ursa Minor so if we were to point things
out this is what we have we have Ursa
Minor right here and then we have Ursa
Major which is really this is just the
Big Dipper part of Ursa Major and here
are the pointer stars that you use
to point you towards Polaris and you can
also use Cassiopeia right here you can
use that middle star kind of like an
arrow pointing you right towards Ursa
Major so these are the two
constellations you can use to help find
the North Star there are a few other
constellations here we have Cepheus
right there which is right next to
Cassiopeia and then we have a part of
Draco Draco is a really large
constellation so it doesn't fit in this
entire photograph but how can you tell
the difference between Ursa Major and
Ursa Minor there are some differences
these are the three differences I use to
help teach others how they look
different so with Ursa Major the handle
is concave okay it's also much larger in
size when you compare it to Ursa Minor
and then if you look at the the
different stars here that are in the Big
Dipper they're all relatively the same
magnitude so that it stands out really
really well in the sky but when you look
at Earth's a minor it kind of has this
convex handle it's smaller and size and
really only three of the main stars are
easily seen I have another diagram here
for you to help kind of demonstrate this
concept but again the handles curve
differently Ursa Major is much bigger
than Ursa Minor and in fact we're really
only looking at the asterisms here the
Big Dipper and Little Dipper for the Big
Dipper that asterism is smaller than the
whole constellation but for the Little
Dipper the Little Dipper asterism is the
exact same of the as the pattern of Ursa
Minor so again more stars are kind of
visible here in the Big Dipper where you
have these these three stars are really
the ones that are bright so use these
strategies to help you find the
differences between these two asterisms
and constellations now we'll take a look
at the brighter stars in this star
pattern so here we have a picture of
Ursa Minor and hopefully you're starting
to learn the pattern how the handle
curves and
these four stars connect as well we have
these two brighter stars and then this
is Polaris so let's learn a little bit
more about Polaris it's estimated to be
four hundred thirty two to four hundred
thirty three light years away and it's a
yellow white supergiant star at least
the main star of this triple star system
so if we zoom in here remember we use
the pointer stars to find Polaris here
we have Polaris a and Polaris B and if
you had a telescope you are an aim it
towards Polaris you're most likely able
to find Polaris B but you're not likely
to find the smaller Polaris a B because
it's just too close to the larger star
in the system if we take a look a closer
look at this system we have the large
white giant star right here and then you
have Polaris a B that's very close to
the main star and then here is Polaris B
now all of these stars are larger than
our Sun but Polaris B and Polaris a B
are only about 1.3 to 1.2 times the mass
of our Sun so those two stars are very
similar to our own star but Polaris a is
estimated to be 4.5 times the mass of
our own Sun and remember I want to give
you a visual as to why this star system
is so important it is situated over our
North celestial Pole so what does that
mean so here we have an image of the
earth and it shows you the axial tilt so
the tilt of the earth is estimated to be
23 and 1/2 degrees and then here this
little star represents Polaris and
Polaris is oriented over our axial tilt
so that's why it appears not to move in
the sky finally we'll move on to the
celestial objects we can see and Ursa
Minor is pretty devoid of any celestial
objects there's no nebulae and there's
no star cluster situated in the
boundaries of this constellation I
picked out this map because it shows you
a little
more than the previous map of where this
one particular celestial object is and
it is a galaxy right here it's name is
NGC 62 17 and it's a barred spiral
galaxy estimated be 67 million
light-years away and here we have Ursa
Minor and this is kind of its general
location of where it would be so it's a
barred spiral galaxy because it has that
bar running right through the center and
then the arms spiral out from there this
concludes our video about Ursa Minor so
let's review everything we've learned
about it so far it's best seen pretty
much all year round in the northern
hemisphere if you happen to live there
and it's classified as a circumpolar
constellation which means that it can be
seen all year round the best way to find
it is learning how to recognize the Big
Dipper and use the pointer stars to find
Ursa Minor you can also use the
constellation Cassiopeia to light your
way as well the brighter stars include
Polaris coach hob and for Cobb and there
are some celestial objects there's a
couple galaxies but otherwise it's
pretty devoid of any type of celestial
objects besides these pairs of galaxies
so I wish you luck in finding Ursa Minor
it's a constellation that it took me it
took me time to be able to find it
simply because I was looking for seven
stars but in reality really can only see
about three of them clearly especially
if you live in an area that has light
pollution remember use the Big Dipper to
help you find this constellation and
once you learn how to do it you'll
always be able to find the north
direction good luck and keep looking up
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