Little And Big Dipper

2 Pages 467 Words

The Big Dipper is one of the most distinctive asterisms in the sky, also known as the Ursa Major or the Great Bear. The Big Dipper is a group of seven bright stars, three that form a handle and four that form a bowl. Fugitive slaves before the Civil War knew it as "the drinking gourd", a signpost in the sky pointing the way north to safety, to Canada where slavery was outlawed. In 1926, when Alaska had to create its own flag, they used the big dipper and the North Star as a design for their flag. It is a piece of Stone Age culture thought to be at least 8,000 to 12,000 years old. In different countries, the Big Dipper has a different name. For instance, In Ireland it was called the "King David's Chariot," from one of that island's early kings. In France, it was the "Great Chariot." And in the British Isles these seven stars are known widely as "The Plough."

The Little Dipper is a constellation reflecting and being the smaller version of the Big Dipper. It can be found by looking directly up from the two outermost stars which form the bowl on the Big Dipper. These two stars point us to Polaris, the Pole Star indicating the North Pole, which is at the end of the Little Dipper's handle.
The Big Dipper The Little Dipper


The 7 stars that are a part of the Big Dipper are:
1. Alkaid
2. Mizar
3. Alioth
4. Megrez
5. Dubhe
6. Merak
7. Phad or Phecda

In the Big Dipper, Mizar, the second star from the end, is actually made up of 4 stars. The brighter 2nd magnitude Mizar, and a fainter 4th magnitude nearby star, Alcor are separated by about 11.8 minutes of arc, and being able to detect the two as separate is considered a test of good eyesight. However Alcor is not part of Mizar. Mizar is at a distance of 78 light years from the Sun, and Alcor at 81 light years. The Big Dipper is setting in the northwestern sky at 7:30 p.m. Use the two Pointer stars at the end of the bowl of the ...