Content

• Steps
• Part 1 of 4: How to Choose the Right Place to View the Sky
• Part 2 of 4: How to spot the Ursa Major constellation in the sky
• Part 3 of 4: More Information on the Big Dipper Bucket
• Part 4 of 4: How to determine the position of the Ursa Minor bucket and the constellation Ursa Major itself
• Tips

The Big Dipper is probably the most famous group of stars in the firmament. It is part of the large constellation Ursa Major, about which many peoples have composed many legends. Knowing the position of the large bucket will help you navigate the terrain and determine the time of day. Finding the stars you need is not that hard once you know what to look at.

Steps

Part 1 of 4: How to Choose the Right Place to View the Sky

1. 1 Choose a suitable spot for observation. You need to find a place where there are no bright sources of artificial light. Finding a large bucket in the sky will be easier where there is no light pollution.
   • You need to position yourself so that you can clearly see the northern horizon.
   • Wait until dark. In the daytime, the Big Dipper is not visible. It is best to observe this constellation in the period from March to June around 22 pm.
2. 2 Look at the sky towards the north. To find a large bucket, you need to inspect the northern section of the sky. Determine the location of north by compass or map. Raise your head to look up at an angle of about 60 degrees.
   • In mid-summer and fall, the large bucket will be closer to the horizon, so don't look too high.
   • On the territory of Russia, the constellation Ursa Major is visible all year round, with the exception of the autumn months in the southernmost regions.
   • If you do not live in the very south, then the constellation will be constantly present in the sky, without sinking beyond the horizon. In the southern regions, it is rather difficult to observe the Big Dipper's dipper in autumn, since some stars are hiding behind the horizon.
3. 3 Explore the differences in the shape of a large bucket at different times of the year. The season plays a significant role here. In spring and summer, the Big Dipper is located higher above the horizon, while in autumn and winter, it sinks closer to the horizon.
   • The dictum "in the spring comes the sunrise, and in the fall it sets" will help you remember the seasonal position of the big bucket.
   • On autumn evenings, the Big Dipper's bucket is almost parallel to the horizon. In winter, its handle is facing down. In the spring, the bucket is turned upside down, and in the summer, its handle looks up.

Part 2 of 4: How to spot the Ursa Major constellation in the sky

1. 1 Try to spot a big bucket in the sky right away. The constellation of the Ursa Major really looks like a bucket with a handle. Three stars form the handle line, and four more - the bucket bowl itself (in the form of a deformed square). Sometimes the shape of the Big Dipper can be compared to the shape of a kite. In this case, the handle of the bucket looks like a thread, and the bowl looks like the sail of a kite.
   • The two extreme stars of the bowl of the large bucket (on the wall without a handle) are indicative (help to find the position of the North Star). They are called Dubhe and Merak. The brightest star of the Big Dipper is Aliot (it is the third from the end of the bucket handle and is located closest to the bowl).
   • The outermost star in the handle of a large bucket is Benetnash (Alkaid). It is one of the stars in the main sequence of the constellation Ursa Major. It is the third brightest in the constellation, and its size is six times the size of our Sun. The next star is Mizar. In fact, sometimes you can see that two stars of the binary system Mizar and Alcor are located here at once.
   • The star of Megrets is the point of attachment of the bucket handle to its bowl. It is the dimmest of the seven stars in the big bucket. Slightly to the south is the star Thekda (the "thigh" of the Big Dipper). It enters the bottom of the large bucket bowl.
2. 2 Find Polar Star. If you are able to find the North Star in the sky, then on it you can find the Big Dipper's bucket (and vice versa). The North Star is usually very bright. To find it, look in a northerly direction, looking up about one third of the distance from the horizon to the zenith. Remember to look northward for the North Star.
   • The Big Dipper's bucket revolves around the Pole Star with the change of the time of year and day. The stars of the Big Dipper bucket are usually as bright as the North Star. The North Star itself is often used for navigation, as it accurately indicates the direction of the "geographical north".
   • Polaris is the brightest star in the constellation Ursa Minor and is located at the very end of the handle formed by this constellation of the small dipper. Draw an imaginary line from the polar star to the nearest two stars of comparable brightness, lying on the same line with it, and you will find the outer wall of the Big Dipper's bowl, represented by its two pointing stars. Polaris will be at a distance of about five times the distance between the two pointing stars of the Big Dipper from the large dipper.
3. 3 Use the Big Dipper bucket to determine the time of day. Ursa Major is a circumpolar constellation. It does not rise or set, unlike the sun. The Big Dipper bucket revolves around the North Pole of the world.
   • During the night, Ursa Major revolves around the North Star counterclockwise with the upper edge of the bucket forward. It makes a full revolution in one sidereal day, which is 4 minutes shorter than the usual 24-hour day.
   • Due to the close correspondence between normal and sidereal days, the specific position of the large bucket in the evening sky can be used to determine the actual time.

Part 3 of 4: More Information on the Big Dipper Bucket

1. 1 Explore the legends of the constellation Ursa Major. For example, according to one of the Greek legends, the constellation is associated with the love story of the nymph Callisto, who fell in love with Zeus and gave him a son, Arcada. Having learned about her husband's betrayal, Hera turned Callisto into a terrible bear, and the son, who did not recognize his own mother, tried to shoot her, but Zeus saved his beloved by taking her to heaven.
   • According to another Greek legend, Zeus sent Callisto and Arcade to heaven (creating the Ursa Major and Ursa Minor) to hide his love affairs from Hera.
   • In different cultures, the stars of the Big Dipper symbolize different things. For example, in China, Japan and Korea, it's just a bucket. For the inhabitants of the north of England, this is a wood-splitting ax, in Germany and Hungary it is a wagon, and in the Netherlands it is a saucepan. In Finland it is a salmon net, and in Saudi Arabia it is a coffin.
   • In addition to the presence of strong contradictions in the history of the legendary origin of the Big Dipper, many are haunted by the discrepancy between the image of real bears and the outlines of the constellation, which has a long tail.Nevertheless, in North Dakota, paleontologists discovered the skeleton of a titanoid (a bear-like creature that lived 60 million years ago), whose characteristic feature was precisely the presence of a long curved tail. Perhaps this very creature is the prototype of the Big Dipper.
2. 2 Study the information about the distance of the stars of the big bucket from the Earth. The stars of the Big Dipper are an integral part of the constellation Ursa Major. The outermost star, Benetnash (Alkaid), sits at the end of the bucket handle and is 210 light-years from planet Earth.
   • The distance to the other stars of the big bucket is as follows: Dubhe 105 light years from Earth, Phekda 90 light years, Mitsar 88 light years, Merak 78 light years, Aliot 68 light years, and Megretz 63 light years of the year.
   • All these stars do not stand in their place, therefore, after 50 thousand years, the shape of a bucket with a handle, characteristic of the constellation Ursa Major, will no longer be recognized.

Part 4 of 4: How to determine the position of the Ursa Minor bucket and the constellation Ursa Major itself

1. 1 Use the North Star to find Ursa Minor bucket. Having learned to find the Ursa Major's bucket in the sky, you can easily learn to find the small bucket as well.
   • Just remember that the two stars on the outer wall of the large dipper bowl point to the North Star. And the North Star is the extreme star in the handle of the Ursa Minor's bucket.
   • The small bucket is not as bright as the large bucket. Nevertheless, they look similar. There are also three stars in the handle of the small bucket, and the bowl is formed by four stars. Finding the Ursa Minor bucket in the sky is usually more difficult (especially in the city), since the stars entering it are not very bright.
2. 2 Use the large bucket to locate the constellation Ursa Major in the sky. The large bucket itself is an asterism. That is, he himself is not a constellation. This is just a part of the stars of the constellation Ursa Major.
   • By itself, a large dipper is only part of the outlines of the constellation Ursa Major (the tail and the back half of the animal's body). It is best to observe the constellation Ursa Major itself in April after 9 pm. With the help of a graphic image of this cluster of stars (there are a lot of such images on the network), you can find other stars of the Big Dipper, and not just those that form a large dipper.
   • Ursa Major is the third largest constellation and one of 88 officially registered constellations.

Tips

• When looking for the constellation Ursa Major in the sky, remember that the handle of the bucket it forms is the tail of the Ursa Major.