Hobbies And Interests
Identification
The Big Dipper consists of seven bright stars, four forming a trapezoidal "bowl" and three trailing to one side to form the "handle." The trapezoid is also the haunches of The Great Bear; the handle is the bear's tail. The Big Dipper is a large formation, with the bowl about the same apparent size as your fist at arm's length. It encompasses an area of the sky roughly between 25 and 45 degrees declination and between 315 and 330 degrees (21 and 22 hours) right ascension. The Big Dipper is bigger and brighter than the nearby Little Dipper, which includes the pole star, Polaris.
Visibility
Because of its location in the northern sky near the pole star, the Big Dipper is visible throughout the northern hemisphere, but only as far south as 25 to 30 degrees south latitude. North of 40 degrees north latitude, it is circumpolar---that is, it circles Polaris, but never sets below the horizon.
Neighborhood
The Big Dipper is in the constellation Ursa Major. The constellations adjoining Ursa Major include Ursa Minor, Draco, Camelopardalis, Lynx, Leo Minor, Leo, Coma Berenices, Canes Venatici and Bootes.
The Pointers
The Big Dipper is located and oriented such that the two stars at the front of the Big Dipper's bowl, opposite the side with the handle, are called the Pointers, because a line connecting them points to the nearby North Star. Less well-known is that the curve of the handle, followed away from the bowl, leads the eye to Arcturus, a bright red star in the constellation Bootes.
History
The identification of the stars in this region with a bear is thought to date back to the Stone Age. The ancient Greek word for bear, "arktos," is the origin of our word "arctic" for the region where the constellation, because of its location in the northern sky, is most prominent. Many cultures also have identified the Big Dipper stars as a cart or wagon. In France, it was called the Great Chariot, and in Ireland King David's Chariot. In Britain it was once referred to as Charles' Wain (a wain is a farm cart), but is now known there as The Plough (Plow). Identification of the seven stars as a pot or dipper is apparently an Americanism of 19th century origin. In the pre-Civil War era, slaves called it the Drinking Gourd and used it as a signpost along the Underground Railroad, marking the way north to Canada and freedom. The Big Dipper and Polaris are represented on the flag of Alaska, first adopted when it was a territory in 1926. The flag was designed by then-13-year-old Benny Benson.