![]() Ursa Minor has traditionally been important for navigation, particularly by mariners, because of Polaris being the north pole star. Ursa Minor was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations. As with the Great Bear, the tail of the Little Bear may also be seen as the handle of a ladle, hence the North American name, Little Dipper: seven stars with four in its bowl like its partner the Big Dipper. Ursa Minor ( Latin: 'Lesser Bear', contrasting with Ursa Major), also known as the Little Bear, is a constellation located in the far northern sky. ![]() Such a dependable and lasting friend is worthy of a springtime salute.Visible at latitudes between + 90° and − 10°.īest visible at 21:00 (9 p.m.) during the month of June. With all that, it’s a pleasure merely to gaze at the Dipper the way you did that night long ago, before you knew such facts. Either Alcor has brightened over the centuries or else the Arabs had vision problems, because away from city lights the pair is easy to see. The ability to discern this “horse and rider” was an old Arabic test of keen eyesight. ![]() It’s that simple.įor those interested: The second star of the Dipper’s handle is the sky’s most famous double star: Mizar and Alcor. If you turn the opposite direction from Polaris, you are facing south. If you are facing Polaris, you are facing north. Using the Big Dipper and Polaris will help you find the direction north far more accurately than a compass. Just draw a straight line from the higher pointer star to the lower pointer star and then keep drawing in a straight line down to a solitary star of their same brightness: Polaris (which is part of the Little Dipper).We call them the “pointers” because they point straight to the Polaris. Locate the two outermost stars at the end of the Big Dipper’s bowl.How Do I Find the North Star?īut its greatest claim to fame remains its ability to guide the beginner to the North Star, Polaris. It’s easy to pick out as it really is dipper-shaped, made of seven bright stars.Īs the Big Dipper is part of Ursa Major (the Big Bear), some people say that the Dipper makes up the Bear’s tail and hindquarters. You should see the Big Dipper ascending in early evening high in the northeastern sky. Unlike the other stars-which either rise in the east and set in the west, or else go around Polaris in a circle-the North Star appears fixed in the northern sky. Hubble telescope’s famous 1995 deep-field photo capturing thousands of distant galaxies the eye could never see! How Do I Find the Big Dipper?įor those at latitudes 41 degrees North or farther north, the Big Dipper is circumpolar, or always above the northern horizon. It was the latest news from an era that no longer exists. By the time their incoming images pass the Dipper’s stars on their way to us, the light from all those galaxies has already completed 99.999% of the journey to our eyes. ![]() It was where the Hubble Space Telescope stared for 100 unblinking hours to obtain its first-ever deepest look across the cosmos. The Dipper’s direction in space offers a crystal-clear window to distant galaxies, unblocked by any foreground dusty gas of our own galaxy. The Dipper floats forlornly in a dark desolate region of the sky far from the Milky Way.Hence, the Dipper guides our eyes away from the flat plane of our own galaxy and toward the rest of the universe. Of the thousands of such star groups, the Big Dipper is the very nearest star cluster to Earth at just 100 light years. Not simply random line-of-sight alignments like nearly all other constellations, they’re family members forming a large and loose cluster, or association. Night Sky Map for December 2023: Rotation of the StarsĪnd most of its stars are gravitationally linked.
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