When Can the Big Dipper Be Seen?

Asterism

• The Big Dipper gets its name from the fact that is looks like an enormous ladle. It is an asterism within the constellation called the Great Bear, or Ursa Major; an asterism is a pattern of stars or group of stars that by themselves seem to represent an object in the heavens.

North and South

• The closer a person is to zero degrees north, the higher overhead the Big Dipper will appear in the sky. Conversely, the asterism will appear lower the further south an observer goes.

Circumpolar

• Someone in the northern hemisphere can look out at night and see Ursa Major in the northern skies. It is what astronomers call a circumpolar constellation, meaning that its stars seem to circle the celestial North Pole.

North Pole

• The north celestial pole is the point in the sky directly over the Earth's North Pole. One star, named Polaris, is very close to this point, meaning that Polaris never seems to move as an observer watches it from the spinning Earth.

Backward Clock

• Two of the stars in the "bowl" portion of the Big Dipper "point" to Polaris. The constellation revolves counter-clockwise around Polaris as the hours pass, seemingly like the backward running hands of a heavenly clock.