Ursa Minor

And can you give us a quick rundown on the basics of using a map and compass? I mean, how do you orient yourself out there without GPS and all the fancy technology?

Well, we know if it's nighttime, where's the Big Dipper dip? The Big Dipper dips towards the Little Dipper, which points what? Towards the North Star handle.

So there you go at night.

Sun, you can, you know, you can, you can count the hours of sun by, you know, putting your hand in front of you and counting how much time you got left.

He could see all the sky at once, he said to his sister, and could look at the stars while she told him stories about them.

First of all, there was the Great Dipper in the north, and the Little Dipper with the bold star.

He was surprised when his sister said that the Great Dipper formed part of the group of stars known as the Great Bear.

and he listened intently while she related the story as told in olden times by the grecians legends of the great bear the great bear was said to be callisto the beautiful daughter of lycaon king of arcadia juno the wife of jupiter was jealous of callisto and threatened to destroy her beauty fearing that juno would harm her jupiter changed her into a bear her arms grow shaggy and deformed with hair her nails are sharpened into pointed claws her hands bear half her weight and turn to paws her lips that once could tempt a god begin to grow distorted in an ugly grin and lest the supplicating brute might reach the ears of jove she was deprived of speech Callisto had a son named Arcas, who became a great hunter.

So that is the little dog? Yes, replied his sister, and the Arabians gave it the name of Alcor.

Dear little Alcor, said Harry as he continued looking at him.

i am going to look for you every evening now because i can see the great dipper from my window so you can replied mary i forgot that it faced north the american indians tell a quaint story about the little dipper would you like to hear it if you are not tired sister said harry you will get tired first for i enjoy telling you these stories if they amuse you dear well here is one that i came across some years ago among a collection of indian legends Once upon a time, a party of Indians went out hunting in a strange country and lost their way.

They wandered about for many moons.

...

I don't know what constellation it was, in like the Little Dipper or something.

I'm like, "Josh, Josh, Josh." And he would [laughs] not look.

He just would not accommodate me that night at all.

There was a Japanese lady.

There was his, um, sort of, uh, there was a n- a, a singer there too, um, called Ursula Minor.

I'm not sure.

I di- I didn't know her.

Right.

Quick fact check.

Ursula Minor is a star constellation.

Ursa Minor is a star constellation.

You're always gonna have a Big Dipper.

You're always gonna have a Little Dipper.

And depending on the time of the day and the time of the year, it's, it's going to show some kind of circular motion," right? So that being said, where was I now? So, uh, he said that the celestial element was considered imperishable and that its natural motion was circular rather than upward or downward like the terrestrial elements.

Um, so, uh, yeah.

So Ursa Major is the Big Bear, but the brightest stars of the Big Bear form the more famous Big Dipper.

Ursa Minor is the Little Bear, and its brightest stars form the more famous Little Dipper, with Polaris, the North Star, at the tip of its handle.

Think of it this way.

A constellation is a country with defined borders, and an asterism is like a nickname for well-known landmarks that can sit within one country or can straddle several.

It's three hunters chasing a bear, and they're calling it Sinusura.

What's that? And I went, that is Eratos, 273 BCE.

It is his poem Phenomena, where he's describing this guy, and it's the original Greek name for the little dipper, which means the dog's tail.

So suddenly... we've recovered part of his sky.

By the time they had reached the front door of the strange little four-legged house and alighted, the smoke had all cleared away.

Instead of sparks, the sky was full of wonderfully brilliant stars, thickly spread and so carefully arranged in their constellations that one could easily pick out the Great Bear, the Little Bear, and all the rest.

The dragon was so real that Alice was almost frightened for the moment.

"It's just like the chart in Uncle's big astronomy," she cried, clapping her hands.