There are quite a lot of different constellations. Some of them are known to all. Only a small part of people knows about others. But there is a cluster of night lights, which is known to absolutely everyone. This article will examine how Ursa Major and Ursa Minor are located. Constellations are characterized by a large number of legends. And some of them will also be told. It should also be told about the most famous and brightest luminaries that can be seen in this rather popular cluster.
The sky at night always attracts attention
Starry sky, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Andromeda, Southern Cross ... What could be more beautiful and magnificent? Millions of stars shine and sparkle, luring inquiring minds. Man has always sought his place in the Universe, wondering how the world works, where his place in it is, whether it was created by the gods, or if he himself is a divine being. Sitting at night by the fire and looking into the distant sky, people learned one simple truth - the stars are not ugly scattered across the sky. They have their own legal place.
Every night the stars remained the same, in the same place. Today, any adult knows that stars are located at different distances from the earth. But, looking into the sky, we cannot say which luminaries are located further and which are closer. Our ancestors could distinguish them only by the brightness of the glow. They singled out a small fraction of the brightest luminaries, formed a group of stars in characteristic figures, calling them constellations. In modern astrology, 88 constellations are distinguished in the starry sky. Our ancestors knew no more than 50.
They called the constellations in different ways, linking them with the names of objects (Libra, Southern Cross, Triangle). The luminaries were given the names of the heroes of Greek myths (Andromeda, Perseus Cassiopeia), the Stars bore the names of real or nonexistent animals (Leo, Dragon, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor). In ancient times, people fully showed their imagination, approaching the issue of naming celestial bodies thoroughly. And there is nothing strange in the fact that the names have not changed to this day.
Stars entering the Bucket cluster
The constellation Ursa Major and Ursa Minor in the starry sky is rightfully considered the most famous and recognizable from the cluster of stars in the northern hemisphere. As we know from childhood, the stars of Ursa Major make up a bucket in the sky - luminaries of a recognizable shape and with an established name. Such an accumulation of night, celestial bodies rightfully has the third place in its size. The first positions are constellations such as Virgo and Hydra. There are 125 stars in Ursa Major. All of them can be distinguished with the naked eye. The bucket forms the seven brightest stars. Each of them has its own name.
Let us turn our attention to the constellation Ursa Major. The world of space without it is already impossible to imagine. Among the stars of this cluster can be distinguished:
- Dubhe - in translation means "bear". This is the brightest star of Ursa Major.
- Merac is the second brightest star. It translates as “lower back”.
- Fekda - in translation means "hip".
- Megrets - translated as "the beginning of the tail."
- Aliot - in translation means "kurdyuk".
- Mizar - translated as "loincloth."
- Benetnash - literally translated as “the leader of the mourners.”
This is only part of the stars that make up the famous cluster.
The movement of the constellation in the sky
Finding the constellation Ursa Major and Ursa Minor in the sky is quite easy. It is best seen in March, April. On fresh spring nights, we can find Ursa Major right overhead. The luminaries are high in the sky. However, after the first half of April, the accumulation of celestial bodies departs to the west. During the summer months, the constellation slowly moves to the northwest. And at the end of August, you can see the bucket very low in the north. There he will remain until winter. During the winter period, Ursa Major again rises above the horizon, starting anew its movement from north to northeast.
Change of position of stars depending on time of day
Focus on how the arrangement of the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor changes over the course of a day. For example, in February, at night, we see a bucket with the handle down, located in the northeast, and in the morning the constellation will move to the northwest. The handle will turn up.
Interestingly, the five stars inside the bucket form one group and move separately from the other two stars. Dubhe and Benetnash slowly leave in the opposite direction from the other five luminaries. It follows that in the near future the bucket will take on a completely different look. But we will not be destined to see this, since a significant change will become noticeable in about a hundred thousand years.
The Secret of the Stars of Mizar and Alcor
In the cluster of stars of Ursa Major there is a fascinating star pair - Mizar and Alcor. What is it interesting about? In ancient times, the acuity of human vision was checked on these two stars. Mizar is the average largest star in the Big Dipper bucket. Next to her is a barely visible star Alcor. A person who has good eyesight will see these two stars without problems, and vice versa, a person with poor eyesight cannot distinguish between two stars in the sky. They will seem to him one bright point in the sky. But these two stars conceal a couple more amazing puzzles.
The naked eye does not see the features inherent in them. If you point the telescope at Mizar, you can see two instead of one star. They are conditionally designated Mizar A and Mizar B. But this is not all. Spectral analysis revealed that Mizar A consists of two stars, and Mizar B consists of three stars. Unfortunately, these night lights are so far from the earth that no optical devices are able to reach them so that the secret can be fully revealed.
Stars from the Ursa Minor Cluster
Two stars in the wall of the bucket are also called Pointers. Merak and Dubhe got this name because, having drawn a straight line through them, we run into a polar star from the constellation Ursa Minor. This cluster of night stars is also called near-polar. The list of stars of the constellation Ursa Minor includes 25 items. They can be seen with the naked eye. Of these, those that are popular should be highlighted. In addition, they are the brightest.
Star cohab. In the period from 3000 BC to 600 AD, this star, which includes the constellation Ursa Minor, acted as a guide for sailors. The North Star indicates the direction to the North Pole. Also known luminaries of the cluster is Ferkad and Yildun.
For a very long time there was no generally accepted name
The constellation Ursa Minor in shape resembles a bucket - almost, like Ursa Major. The Phoenicians, one of the best sailors of ancient times, used a similar cluster of bodies for navigational purposes. But the Greek sailors were guided more by Ursa Major. Arabs saw a horseman in Ursa Minor, the Indians saw a monkey, which holds its tail at the center of the world and circles around it. As we see, there was no universally accepted meaning and name for a long time, and each nationality saw in the starry sky something of its own, close and easily explainable. What else can the Ursa Major constellation tell about itself?
Legends of the constellation. Dubhe Star
A huge number of legends and legends go about the accumulation of the stars of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.
The following legend goes about the brightest star Dubhe from the constellation Ursa Major. The daughter of Tsar Lycaon, the beautiful Callisto, was one of the hunters of the goddess Artemis. Almighty Zeus fell in love with Callisto, and she gave birth to a boy Arkas. For this, the jealous wife of Zeus Hera turned Callisto into a bear. When Arkas grew up and became a hunter, he attacked the bear’s trail and was already preparing to hit the beast with an arrow. Zeus, seeing what was happening, did not allow murder. It was he who turned Arkas into a smaller bear. The sovereign of heaven placed them in the firmament so that the mother and son would always remain together.
The legend of a small cluster of stars
There is a legend of the constellation Ursa Minor. She looks as follows. Saving his son Zeus from his father, the Greek god Kronos, who was famous for devouring his children, his wife Rhea stole a small child and carried away to the caves. In addition to the goat, the baby was fed by two nymphs - Melissa and Gelis. For this they were awarded. Zeus, when he became the ruler of heaven, turned them into bears and placed them in the sky.
The legend of the appearance of the constellation according to the storytellers from Greenland
In distant Greenland there is also a legend in which the constellation Ursa Major is featured. The mythology and history of this cluster is quite popular. But the most popular among the Eskimos was one story, about which absolutely everything is told. It has even been suggested that this legend is not fiction, but sheer truth. In the snowy house, on the very edge of Greenland, the great hunter Eriulok lived. He lived alone in the hut, as he was arrogant, considering himself the best in his field. Therefore, he did not want to communicate with his fellow tribesmen. For many years, he went to sea and always returned with rich booty. In his house there was always a lot of food, seal fat, and the walls of his home were decorated with the best skins of walruses, seals and seals. Eriulok was rich, well-fed, but lonely. And loneliness over time began to weigh the great hunter. He tried to make friends with his Eskimo tribesmen, but they did not want to deal with an arrogant relative. Apparently, he strongly offended them at the time.
In desperation, Eriulok went to the Arctic Ocean and called the lord of the deep sea, the goddess Arnarkuhssak. He told her about himself and his misfortune. The goddess promised to help, but in return Eriulok had to bring her a bucket of magic berries that would return the goddess to her youth. The hunter agreed and went to a distant island, found a cave guarded by a bear. After much torment, he euthanized a forest animal and stole a bucket of berries. The goddess did not deceive the hunter and gave him a wife, and in return received magic berries. After all the adventures, Eriulok married and became the father of a large family, the envy of all the neighbors in the district. As for the goddess, she ate all the berries, became younger for a couple of hundred centuries and joyfully threw an empty bucket into the sky, where he, clinging to something, remained hanging.
A touching legend of good and evil
There is another unusually touching legend in which the constellation Ursa Major and Ursa Minor is affected. In the distant, distant times, among the hills and ravines, stood an ordinary village. A large family lived in this settlement, and her daughter Aina grew up in it. There was no one kinder to this girl in the neighborhood. One morning, a dark cart appeared on the road leading to the village. Black horses marched into the harness. A man sat on the cart, and his clothes were dark in color. He smiled broadly, had fun and sometimes laughed. On the cart was a dark cage in which, chained in a chain, was a white teddy bear. Huge tears rolled from the animal’s eyes. Many villagers began to be indignant: isn’t it embarrassing for such a big dark man to keep a small white bear cub on a chain, torment and mock him. Although people were outraged, it didn’t go beyond words.
And only when the cart caught up with the house where Aina lived, the kind girl stopped her. Aina asked to release the teddy bear. The stranger laughed and said that he would let go if someone gave his teddy bear his eyes. None of the inhabitants even thought to do this, except Aina. The black man agreed to let the teddy bear go in exchange for the girl’s eyes. And Aina lost her sight. The white bear came out of the cage and the tears from his eyes stopped flowing. The cart, along with the horses and the black man, melted in the air, and the white teddy bear remained in its place. He went to Aina, who was crying, gave her a rope tied to his collar, and led the girl through the fields, meadows. The villagers who watched them saw how the white teddy bear turns into the Big Dipper, and Aina turns into a little white teddy bear, and together they go to the sky. Since then, people have seen them walking together in the sky. They are always in the sky and remind people of good and evil. Such an instructive legend is the constellation Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.
Halo of mystery lost due to progress
Both in antiquity and at the present time, constellations help us navigate in space. Travelers and sailors can find out the time by brightness and location of the constellations, find the direction of movement, etc. Now we are less likely to sit around the fire, less often look at the mysterious starry sky, and we no longer compose legends about Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, Cassiopeia, Hound Dogs. Few people can immediately show the constellation Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. We know from the lessons of astronomy that the stars are very far away, and this is in most of the planet, similar to our Sun.
The development of optical telescopes led to a number of discoveries about which our ancestors did not know anything. What can I say, a man was able to visit even the moon, take samples of the lunar soil and successfully return. Science has blown away that veil of obscurity and mystery that celestial bodies have been covering for centuries. And still, we furtively look into the sky, looking for one or another constellation, and we see in them not cold stars, but a white Teddy Bear or the formidable Leo, or Cancer, crawling along the celestial surface. Therefore, many people like to admire the night sky, clear from the clouds, on which a variety of luminaries, their combinations with each other and clusters are clearly visible.
Conclusion
In this review, the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor were considered. It's easy to find them in the sky. And, most likely, everyone at one time tried to do this. And some even now, looking at the sky at night, are trying to locate the bucket.
We hope that this review has told you a lot about this cluster known to everyone: what does the constellation Ursa Major and Ursa Minor look like, what stars are included in its composition, what legends are characterized, etc.