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.
