Fall

Ursa Major: The Great Bear

Adam Garza
Physics 1040
Constellation Paper

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In selecting the constellation that I would be writing my final paper on, I pondered for a
moment to find that the only constellation I had really heard of was Ursa Major. After an online
investigation of this constellation, I concluded that Ursa Major is actually really quite interesting
for a number of reasons and would make a great constellation for me to learn and write about.

Mythology
Although there are more than one, the most well known myth of the constellation Ursa
Major is of Greek origin and involves both Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. To many different
cultures and throughout the ages, the stars patterns have represented lots of different objects
such as a plow, a wagon, a coffin, a skunk, a camel, a shark, a canoe, a bushel, a sickle, and even
a hog's jaw. However, today the most agreed upon pattern is that of a bear. (Miles, Ursa Major
4)

(Miles, Ursa Major 3)

Historians have dated the first known stories about this constellation back to the Ice Age
and it has even been said to be possible that the constellation got its name 50, 000 years ago

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when a Paleolithic bear cult existed. According to www.aavso.org, in some cultures bears are
regarded as gods and in the past there have been many fairy tales and fantasies written about
people taking on the form of bears. (Miles, Ursa Major 3)
In the words of a former Montclair State University Professor named Mary Lou West, the
Roman myth of Ursa Major says, Callisto was a young woman training to be a hunter with
Diana (Artemis, Cynthia). Zeus (Jupiter) saw her and fell in love with her. One day she became
separated from her hunting group and Zeus saw his chance. He disguised himself as Diana in
order to get close to the unsuspecting Callisto. A while later she was sent away from the hunting
class in disgrace and had her son in the forest. She raised Arcas to be a hunter.
Eventually Zeus' jealous wife Hera (Juno) found Callisto and turned her into a bear. She set the
bear in front of Arcas when he was out hunting, so that he would shoot his mother in ignorance.
However, Zeus snatched the big bear (Ursa Major) away and placed her among the stars. Arcas
was also changed into a little bear (Ursa Minor) and put into the sky. Hera was very angry and
persuaded the god of the sea to forbid the bears to ever wash. They circle the north pole of the
sky but never set below the horizon. (J,B.S The Myths of Ursa Major 2)
In a different version of the same tale, it is not Hera but Artemis who transformed Callisto
into a bear as a punishment to the nymph for breaking her vows of chastity to the goddess. Many
years later, both Callisto and Arcas get captured in the forest and taken to King Lycaon as a sort
of gift. The mother and son take refuge in the temple of Zeus, where trespassing is punishable by
death, but the god intervenes and saves them by putting them both in the sky. (J,B.S The Myths
of Ursa Major 2)

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Constellation

(Ursa Major, Wiki 7)

Ursa Major occupies a very large area in the northern celestial hemisphere and is actually
one of the largest constellations in the known night sky, covering approximately 3.10 % of the
total sky. It is located in the second quadrant of the northern hemisphere (NQ2). Its 1280 sq.
deg., 28-sided irregular polygon shape can be seen from the northern hemisphere at latitudes
between +90 and -30. Some of the constellations that surround it are known as Bootes,
Camelopardalis, Canes Venatici, Coma Berenices, Draco, Leo, Leo Minor, and Lynx. Though
Ursa Major is fairly easily seen by the unaided eye, it is most visible at 21:00 (9 p.m.)

Name

RA

Dec

vis.
mag.

Dist.(ly)

Sp. class

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UMa

12h 54m 01.63s

+55 57 35.4

1.76

81

A0p

UMa

11 03 43.84

+61 45 04.0

1.81

124

F7V comp

UMa

13h 47m 32.55s

+49 18 47.9

1.85

101

B3V SB

Mizar

13h 23m 55.42s

+54 55 31.5

2.23

78

A2V

UMa

11h 01m 50.39s

+56 22 56.4

2.34

79

A1V

+53 41 41.0

2.41

84

A0V SB

UMa

11 09 39.86

+44 29 54.8

147

K1III

UMa

10h 22m 19.80s

+41 29 58.0

3.06

249

M0III SB

UMa

08h 59m 12.84s

+48 02 32.5

3.12

48

A7IV

UMa

09h 32m 52.33s

UMa

11 53 49.74

+51 40 43.0

3.17

44

F6IV

+57 01 57.4

3.32

81

A3Vvar

UMa

08 30 16.03

+60 43 06.4

3.35

184

G4II-III

UMa

10h 17m 05.93s

+42 54 52.1

3.45

134

A2IV

UMa

11h 18m 28.76s

+33 05 39.3

3.49

421

K3III SB

UMa

09h 03m 37.56s

UMa

12 15 25.45

+47 09 24.0

3.57

423

A1Vn

23 UMa

09 31 31.57

+63 03 42.5

3.65

75

F0IV

UMa

11h 46m 03.13s

+47 46 45.6

3.69

196

K0III

UMa

09h 50m 59.69s

+59 02 20.8

3.78

115

F0IV

UMa A

11h 18m 11.24s

+31 31 50.8

3.79

27.3

G0V

UMa B
13h 23m 56.40s
+54 55 18.0
during the month of April. (Fronmert, The Ursa 3)

3.95

The table below lists the 20 brightest stars in Ursa Majors constellation with their given
location, distance, visual magnitude, spectral classification and name/designation for ease of
reference.

(Ursa Major, Wiki 7)

Objects of interest

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Within the Ursa Major constellation there are many very interesting objects. One that
stood out to me as I researched what could be found was the planetary nebula known as the Owl
Nebula. The Owl Nebula is located to the lower left of Dubhe, approximately 2,030 light years
away and was discovered by a french astronomer by the name of Pierre Mechain on February 16,
1781. When Pierre drew the nebula to keep as a record, his illustration resembled an owls head
and so that is where the nebula got its name from. Its outer radius is around .91 ly and it is
expanding with velocities in the range of 27-39 km/s into the surrounding interstellar medium

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and its visual magnitude is +9.9. (Admin, Owl Nebula 1)

(Miles, Ursa Major 3)

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Another point of interest is The Pinwheel Galaxy also known as Messier 101. This
galaxy is located 21 million light years away and was also discovered by Pierre Mechain about a
month after his discovery of the Owl Nebula on March 27, 1781. The Pinwheel Galaxy is
comparable to the Milky Way Galaxy in size and has a disk mass of about 100 billion solar
masses and has been known to contain a few supernovas between 1909 and the present day. Its
size is 170,000 ly in diameter and its apperent magnitude is 7.86. (Brantley, The Big Dipper
4)

(Miles, Ursa Major 3)

Overall, Ursa Major is a very interesting constellation to study and Im glad I had the chance to
learn a little about it as Ive found that much of the information applies to the things we have
learned in class throughout the semester which really helped me to better understand the
knowledge that Ive gained and how that knowledge can be ised in everyday life.

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Works Cited
Admin. "Owl Nebula Messier 97." Constellation Guide. 14 Sept. 2014. Web. 07 Mar.
2016.
J, B. S. "The Myths of Ursa Major, The Great Bear | AAVSO." AAVSO. 16 Apr. 2010.
Web. 17 Apr. 2016.
Frommert, Hartmut. "The Ursa Major Moving Cluster, Collinder 285." The Ursa Major
Moving Cluster, Cr 285. 26 Apr. 2003. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.
Miles, Kathy. "Ursa Major." Ursa Major. Chuck Peters, n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2016.
<http://starryskies.com/The_sky/constellations/ursa_major.html>.
Branley, Franklyn M., and Molly Coxe. The Big Dipper. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.
Print.
Underweft, Slight. "Facts About the Big Dipper (Ursa Major Constellation)."Bright Hub.
RC Davidson, 24 May 2011. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.
"Ursa Major." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Apr. 2016. Web. 05 Apr. 2016.

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