Big Dipper- constellation of the northern hemisphere of the sky. The seven stars of Ursa Major make up a figure resembling a ladle with a handle. The two brightest stars, Aliot and Dubhe, have magnitudes of 1.8 apparent magnitudes. According to the two extreme stars of this figure (α and β), you can find the Polar Star. The best visibility conditions are in March-April. It can be seen throughout Russia all year round (with the exception of the autumn months in the south of Russia, when the Big Dipper descends low to the horizon).
There are about 125 stars in the constellation, but only seven are called the largest and brightest: Dubhe, Merak, Fekda, Megrets, Aliot, Mizar and Alkaid. Between themselves, they form a bucket, which is visible to the naked eye.
The legend of the appearance of the constellation
In distant Greenland there is also a legend in which the constellation Ursa Major appears. The mythology and history of this cluster is quite popular. But one story has gained the greatest popularity among the Eskimos, about which absolutely everyone tells. It has even been suggested that this legend is not fiction, but the purest truth. In a snowy house, on the very edge of Greenland, lived the great hunter Eriulok. He lived in a hut alone, as he was arrogant, considering himself the best in his field. Therefore, he did not want to communicate with his other compatriots. For many years in a row 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 dwelling were decorated with the best skins of walruses, seals and seals.
Eriulok was rich, well-fed, but lonely. And loneliness over time began to burden the great hunter. He tried to make friends with his fellow Eskimos, but they did not want to deal with an arrogant relative. Apparently, he offended them greatly at the time. In desperation, Eriulok went to the Arctic Ocean and called the mistress of the sea depths, the goddess Arnarkuachssak. He told her about himself and his trouble. The goddess promised to help, but in return, Eriulok had to bring her a ladle with magical berries that would restore youth to the goddess. The hunter agreed and went to a distant island, found a cave guarded by a bear. After much torment, he put the forest animal to sleep and stole a ladle of berries. The goddess did not deceive the hunter and gave him a wife, and in return received magical berries.
After all the adventures, Eriulok got married and became the father of a large family, to the envy of all the neighbors in the area. As for the goddess, she ate all the berries, rejuvenated by a couple of hundred centuries, and joyfully threw an empty ladle into the sky, where he, clinging to something, remained hanging.
Stars and asterisms
Ursa Major is the third largest constellation (after Hydra and Virgo), whose seven bright stars form the famous Big Bucket; this asterism has been known since antiquity among many peoples under different names: the Rocker, the Plow, the Elk, the Wagon, the Seven Wise Men, etc. All the stars of the Bucket have their own Arabic names:
- Dubhe(α Ursa Major) means "bear";
- Merak(β) - "lower back";
- Fekda(γ) - "thigh";
- Megrets(δ) - "the beginning of the tail";
- Aliot(ε) - the meaning is not clear (but, most likely, this name means "fat tail");
- Mizar(ζ) - "sash" or "loincloth".
- The last star in the bucket handle is called Benetnash or Alkaid(η); in Arabic, "al-Qaeed banat ours" means "the leader of the mourners." This poetic image is taken from the Arab folk interpretation of the constellation Ursa Major.
In the system of naming stars with Greek letters, the order of the letters simply corresponds to the order of the stars.
Another interpretation of asterism is reflected in the alternative name Hearse and Wailers. Here, asterism is thought of as a funeral procession: in front of the mourners, led by a leader, behind them are a funeral stretcher. This explains the name of the star η Ursa Major "the leader of the mourners."
Bucket inner stars
5 inner stars of the Bucket (except for the extreme α and η) really belong to a single group in space - the moving cluster Ursa Major, which moves quite quickly across the sky; Dubhe and Benetnash are moving in the opposite direction, so the shape of the Dipper changes significantly in about 100,000 years.
Stars Merak and Dubhe
They form the wall of the Bucket, are called pointers, since the straight line drawn through them rests on the North Star (in the constellation Ursa Minor). Six stars of the Bucket have a shine of the 2nd magnitude, and only Megrets is of the 3rd magnitude.
Alcor
Near Mizar, which was the second among the double stars discovered in the telescope (Giovanni Riccioli in 1650; according to the data of the early 2000s, it was probably observed as a double as early as 1617 by Galileo). A keen eye sees a star of magnitude 4 Alcor (80 Ursa Major), which in Arabic means “forgotten”, or “insignificant”. It is believed that the ability to distinguish the star Alcor has been a recognized test of vigilance since ancient times. The pair of stars Mizar and Alcor is often interpreted as an asterism " horse and rider».
Three gazelle jumps
Peculiar asterism Three gazelle jumps of Arabic origin consists of three pairs of closely spaced stars, and the pairs are on the same straight line and separated by equal distances. Associated with hoofprints of a gazelle moving by jumps. Includes stars:
- Alula North and Alula South (v and ξ, first jump),
- Taniya North and Taniya South (λ and μ, second jump),
- Talita North and Talita South (ι and κ, third jump).
Arcturus
Aliot, Mizar and Benetnash form an extended arc that points to Arcturus, the brightest star north of the celestial equator, and also the brightest star visible in the spring in the mid-latitudes of Russia. As this arc extends further south, it points to Spica, the brightest star in the constellation Virgo.
Lalande 21185
The red dwarf, located in the Alula Severnaya region and inaccessible to observations with the naked eye, is one of the star systems closest to the Earth, only Alpha Centauri, Barnard's Star and Wolf 359 are closer to it. Groombridge 1830, which is inferior in its own motion to only Barnard's star and Kapteyn's star, in a hundred years it shifts by about a third of the lunar disk.
Constellation legends. Star of Dubhe
There are a huge number of legends and tales about the cluster of luminaries Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. The following belief goes about the brightest star Dubhe from the constellation Ursa Major. The daughter of King Lycaon, the beautiful Callisto was one of the huntresses of the goddess Artemis. The almighty Zeus fell in love with Callisto, and she gave birth to the 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 trail of a bear and was already preparing to hit the beast with an arrow. Zeus, seeing what was happening, did not allow the murder. It was he who turned Arkas into a smaller bear. The ruler of heaven placed them in the sky so that mother and son would always remain together.
Ursa Major ranks third among the constellations in terms of area, but unusually few variable stars have been found there - for 2011 it is not included in the top ten constellations in this indicator.
- The Hubble Ultra Deep Field was imaged in a region one-twelfth the size of the lunar disk near the star Megrets. For 2011, this is one of the most detailed images of the starry sky, allowing you to distinguish between many galaxies billions of light years away from Earth.
- Scars in the shape of the constellation Ursa Major on the chest are worn by the character of the popular in many countries anime and manga Hokuto No Ken, Kenshiro. At the moment, only the independent three-part novella "Fist of the North Star: New Era" is available in the official Russian translation.
- The world's first cryonics company is named after a star from the constellation Ursa Major.
- Soviet archaeologist and historian, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Rybakov B.A. in his well-known work he wrote: “The most important constellation of our northern hemisphere - Ursa Major - in the Russian North was called “Elk”, “Prongs” ... The Poles call the North Star the “Elk Star” (Gwiazda Łosiowa). Among the Evenks, the constellation Ursa Major (Ursus Major) is called "Moose Heglen".
- In the animated series "Gravity Falls" on the forehead of the main character Dipper Pines there is a birthmark in the form of this constellation. Because of him, he got the nickname Dipper ( dipper from English - ladle, and the constellation Ursa Major is sometimes called the Big Dipper).
