Instructions

Focus on the North Star. It is imperative to remember that Ursa Minor is located quite high above the horizon. Residents of Russia can observe it throughout the year. The Ursa Minor is surrounded by Giraffe, Cepheus and Draco - these are the ones that have practically no bright stars. Therefore, in search of Ursa Minor, you should focus specifically on the North Star, which is difficult not to notice in the sky. By the way, please note: the North Star has a pronounced yellowish color, and this is noticeable even when you look at it with ordinary binoculars. People have been guided by this star since ancient times: once upon a time, sailors used the North Star for navigation purposes.

Look for Ursa Minor in the neighboring constellation Ursa Major. Find the two extreme ones in the Big Dipper - Merak and Dubhe. Having found these stars, draw a mental line up through them - the length of this line should be approximately five times greater than the distance between the indicated stars. This "" will pass near the North Star. Next, you need to “descend” with your gaze along the small bucket - and thus find the entire constellation.

By the way, it is worth knowing that the constellation Ursa Minor is interesting not only for its appearance. Moreover, a very beautiful ancient Greek legend about the birth of Zeus is associated with it. It is believed that Zeus's mother, Gaia, decided to hide her son from father Cronus, who ate his children. The goddess took the newborn to the top of the mountain where the nymphs lived. The nymphs' mother Melissa raised Zeus, and in gratitude he took her to heaven and made her the most beautiful constellation. There is another version of the legend: the nymph Callisto, the beloved of Zeus, and their common son Arkad were transformed into Ursa Minor.

Even people far from astronomy know very well that in the sky there is the constellation Ursa Major, which is shaped like a bucket. Many people have often seen the positions of the stars of Ursa Major in photographs and diagrams. And it seems like a large constellation, seven bright stars, but how difficult it is to find it in the sky at night!

Instructions

First of all, you must clearly understand the constellation that you want to find among the endless amount of night sky. Look for all kinds of photographs and diagrams of the starry sky in which Ursa Major will be highlighted in some way. Note that all seven stars of Ursa Major are bright, large, and always clearly visible.

During the year, the position of the “bucket” changes relative to the horizon. You may need a compass to determine which way to look.

On cool spring nights, you can find the Big Dipper directly overhead, the stars high in the sky. But closer to the middle, the “bucket” goes to the west. In summer, the constellation begins to slowly descend to the northwest. And already at the end of August you will be able to see the “bucket” very low in the north, where it will remain until the winter. In three months

The constellation Ursa Minor is a circumpolar constellation in the Northern Hemisphere of the sky. It occupies an area of ​​255.9 square degrees in the sky and contains 25 stars visible to the naked eye. Ursa Minor currently houses the North Pole of the world, at an angular distance of 40′ from .
Ursa Minor is one of the most famous constellations. It is small in size and does not have particularly bright stars, but its location is remarkable. Ursa Minor is located near the north pole of the world, and due to this, it has played an important role in astronomy for many centuries. Ursa Minor is usually depicted as a small bear with a long tail. They say that the tail is so long because the bear clings to the Earth's pole with its end. The seven brightest stars in Ursa Minor form a scoop shape similar to the asterism in the constellation Ursa Major. At the end of the handle is the North Star. Finding a constellation in the sky is quite simple. Its neighbors are the Giraffe, the Dragon and the Cepheus. But the Ursa Major is usually the reference point for the search. By drawing a line with your gaze through the two outer luminaries of its bucket, and measuring up five distances between them, you can find the North Star, which serves as the beginning of the “handle” of another, smaller “scoop”. This will be Ursa Minor. It is less bright than the Big One, but is still clearly visible in the sky and is easily distinguishable from other constellations. In the Northern Hemisphere, this constellation is available for observation all year round.

The brightest stars of the constellation

• Polaris (αUMi). Magnitude 2.02 m
• Kohab (βUMi). Apparent magnitude 2.08 m. In the period from approximately 2000 BC. e. to 500 AD e. Kohab was the bright star closest to the North Pole and played the role of the polar star, which is reflected in its Arabic name Kohab el-Shemali (Star of the North)
• Ferkad (γ UMi). Magnitude 3.05 m
• Yildun (δ UMi). Apparent magnitude 4.36 m

The legend of the constellation Ursa Minor

Ursa Major and Ursa Minor are connected not only by their proximity in the sky, but also by myths and legends, which the ancient Greeks were great experts at composing.

The main role in stories with she-bears was usually given to Callisto, the daughter of Lycaon, king of Arcadia. According to one legend, her beauty was so extraordinary that she attracted the attention of the almighty Zeus. Taking the guise of the hunter-goddess Artemis, whose retinue included Callisto, Zeus penetrated the maiden, after which her son Arkad was born. Having learned about this, the jealous wife of Zeus Hera immediately turned Callisto into a bear. Time has passed. Arkad grew up and became a wonderful young man. One day, while hunting a wild animal, he came upon the trail of a bear. Suspecting nothing, he already intended to hit the animal with an arrow, but Zeus did not allow the murder: having also turned his son into a bear, he carried both of them to heaven. This act enraged Hera; Having met her brother Poseidon (god of the seas), the goddess begged him not to allow the couple into her kingdom. That is why Ursa Major and Ursa Minor in the middle and northern latitudes never go beyond the horizon.

Another legend is associated with the birth of Zeus. His father was the god Kronos, who, as you know, had the habit of devouring his own children. To protect the baby, the wife of Kronos, the goddess Rhea, hid Zeus in a cave, where he was nursed by two bears - Melissa and Helis, who were later ascended to heaven.

In general, for the ancient Greeks the bear was an exotic and rare animal. This may be why both she-bears in the sky have long, curved tails, which are not actually found on bears. Some, however, explain their occurrence by the unceremoniousness of Zeus, who pulled the bears into the sky by their tails. But tails can have a completely different origin: among the same Greeks, the constellation Ursa Minor had an alternative name - Kinosura (from the Greek Κυνόσουρις), which translates as “Dog’s Tail”.

The Big and Small Buckets were often popularly called “chariots” or Big and Small Carts (not only in Greece, but also in Rus'). And in fact, with proper imagination, you can see carts with harnesses in the buckets of these constellations.

If you look deep into the centuries, then among many asterisks a rather important position occupies. All facts indicate that ancient navigation relied on it. Although the Phoenicians sometimes used the Big Dipper for orientation, despite its great brightness, it gave significant inaccuracies in determining the path.

How to find Ursa Minor from Ursa Major?

Obviously, most of you will find Ursa Major with ease. She is quite expressive and bright. Knowing that both constellations are nearby, it will undoubtedly become clear how to find Ursa Minor from Ursa Major. To do this, you will need to mentally connect the last two stars of the Big Dipper: from Merak (β Ursa Major) to Dubha (α Ursa Major)), continuing this line upward to a distance 5 times greater than the distance between them. This is how you will discover Alpha (the North Star) of the Ursa Minor constellation.

Before wondering how to find the constellation Ursa Minor, knowing only the location of Polaris, you need to understand what figure the luminaries form, and how the asterisk is located relative to the Big Dipper.

For a complete understanding: according to their names, they are quite similar and resemble a ladle in shape. As for the location, Ursa Minor is practically in an inverted position relative to the Big Dipper.

Knowledge is power

Study the star map before starting your search, this will make it easier for you to find the asterisk. Subsequently, you will be convinced of the ease of detection of the desired star group. And if someone asks you how to find Ursa Minor from Ursa Major, you, with full knowledge of the matter, can clearly explain how to find it.

Well, now we know how to find the constellation Ursa Minor. Let's talk about the North Star, thanks to which travelers and sailors of the past made a long and difficult journey. Although it is not in the night sky, it is located closest to the northern point of the world, with an error of less than 1°. After only 145 years, the position error will exceed one degree.

Only after 3200 will the star closest to the northern point of the world become Alderamin (alpha Cephei).

"Twists" the bear by the tail on the earth's axis

The North Star does not change its position, despite the Earth's daily rotation around its own axis and annual movement in orbit around the Sun. The brightness of the guiding star is not constant and changes intensity every 4 days, within 2.02 ± 2%. Previously, the luminosity amplitude was higher, but today it has stabilized. The overall brightness of the North Star is constantly growing and has increased by almost 15% over the past hundred years.

The nature of the pulsation is related to the properties of the star; this is exactly how Cepheids behave. Guiding Star is one of the brightest Cepheids in the night sky.
Ursa Minor occupies an area of ​​about 255.9 square degrees in the sky. Its closest neighbors are the Dragon and Cepheus.

In the asterisk, as already mentioned, the North Pole of the World is located - where all objects revolve around it. The first mention in historical sources was made by the Greek astrologer Ptolemy in the 2nd century.

Ursa Minor and its stars

The Little Dipper constellation includes seven bright objects. Of all the luminaries of Ursa Minor, only the three brightest are clearly visible. These are Ferhad and Kohab, forming the wall of the Bucket, and crowning the handle of the constellation Polaris. The last two stars are located above the tail of Ursa Major.

The Little Dipper is somewhat different from other constellations. It does not change its location in the sky, like Ursa Major and most other asterisks, which are seasonal. They can be observed in certain seasons, and they are mobile in the sky throughout the year. Ursa Minor also changes its location, rotating around its Alpha.

"Alpha and Omega" constellation Ursa Minor in the northern hemisphere

Alpha (Pole Star) Ursa Minor is located at a distance from Earth of 431 with an apparent magnitude of 2.02. As it became known, this is not one, but three stars united into a single system. The brightest among them is almost 2 thousand times greater than the brightness of the Sun. The second luminary Ursa Minor has a mass equal to 1.39 solar.

It can be observed through a small telescope. The third Alpha star is 1.25 times more massive than our Sun and is located quite close to the first. With the help of the Hubble telescope, it became possible to view it as a separate star.

Kohab is an orange giant, translated from Arabic as “Star of the North”. The second brightest star, also known as beta, is in the constellation Little Dipper with 2.8 and is 126 light years away from Earth.

Ferhad is the gamma of Ursa Minor, with a magnitude of 3.6, the distance to it is 480 light years. This object is considered a hot giant with a temperature of 8600 K and belongs to the variable type of stars.

Delta Little Dipper, or Yildun, is a white dwarf star located 183 light years away.

Zeta is another dwarf, white in color and located 380 light years from Earth. The intensity of its glow is 200 times higher than that of the Sun. It is on the way to forming a giant star.

The North Star will not let you down

You may not be able to remember it all, but your knowledge has become more extensive. And if suddenly you get lost in the forest and there is no mobile connection, try to remember how to find Ursa Minor by Ursa Major. You will certainly find the North Star and find your bearings in which direction north is.

The sky is full of secrets and unknown mysteries

Even without a telescope, just looking at the night lights, you will see how diverse our large Universe is.

The constellation Ursa Minor is just a small visible part of it. The boundaries and dimensions of the Universe visible to us today have been determined. These are truly gigantic magnitudes, its extent is about 14 billion light years.

But is the Universe like this in reality? This thought excites the minds of great scientists. They build hypotheses, research, argue and try to understand whether this is true? Some experts express the opinion that the Universe is infinite, others - that the Multiverse exists.

And it may well turn out that one of them contains the same planet, country and copy of you. Everything is possible, science constantly pushes back the veil of the unknown and hidden from our sight, invariably proving: what seems fantastic today comes true tomorrow.

There are constellations in the sky that almost everyone knows about. These include the constellation Ursa Minor.

The constellation Ursa Minor is located in the subpolar region of the sky and contains 25 stars. But for most people, only seven of them are known, forming an asterism called the Little Dipper. The most popular star of the constellation is, whose location almost coincides with the North Pole of the world. In addition to fairly bright luminaries, the constellation contains a small elliptical galaxy, nicknamed the Ursa Minor Dwarf for its size.

Location

Constellation Ursa Minor, view in the Stellarium planetarium program

Finding a constellation in the sky is quite simple. Its neighbors are the Giraffe, the Dragon and the Cepheus. But it usually serves as a guide for searching. By drawing a line with your gaze through the two outer luminaries of its bucket, and measuring up five distances between them, you can find the North Star, which serves as the beginning of the “handle” of another, smaller “scoop”. This will be Ursa Minor. It is less bright than the Big One, but is still clearly visible in the sky and is easily distinguishable from other constellations. In the Northern Hemisphere, this constellation is available for observation all year round.

North celestial pole

A pole is a point on the celestial sphere that appears stationary to an observer on Earth, while all other objects rotate around it. If there is a bright star nearby, it can serve as a guide, since its location does not depend on the time of day. Due to the peculiarities of the Earth's movement, this point moves, but on a scale of centuries it can be considered unchanged. Currently, the North Star is closest to the pole. It is only 40 arc minutes away from it in angular terms.

polar Star

Alpha Ursa Minor is located 434 light years from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 1.97. But in fact, this is not one luminary, but three, united into a system. The largest of them is 4.5 times more massive than the Sun and two thousand times brighter. The second largest star is located at a fairly decent distance from the main one; it can even be viewed with a small telescope. The mass of the star is approximately 1.39 solar. The third star is so close to the first that they could be visually separated only with the help of the telescope, and even then, this was done with great difficulty. It is 1.25 times heavier than the Sun.

The second brightest luminary of Ursa Minor is its beta, which has an apparent magnitude of 2.08. The star is approximately 126 light years away from Earth. Its name translated from Arabic means “Star of the North”, since for a certain period of time BC (approximately from 2000 to 500) Kohab was located closest to the pole and served as a navigational landmark for the people living at that time. In 2014, Korean astronomers discovered a planet around this double star whose mass exceeds Jupiter’s by 6.1 times. The orbital period of this gas giant is 522.3 days.

Gamma Ursa Minor is located at a distance of about 480 light years from Earth and has an apparent magnitude varying in the range of 3.04-3.09. The period of change in the brightness of the star is 3.43 hours. This third brightest object in the constellation is a hot giant with a temperature of about 8600 K. Its luminosity exceeds that of the Sun by 1.1 thousand times, and its dimensions are 15 times larger than our yellow dwarf. According to the classification, it belongs to the variable luminaries of the T Shield type.

Asterisms

The constellation contains two asterisms: the Little Dipper and the Guardians of the Pole. The first is well known to modern observers. It is very similar to the Big Dipper located nearby, but is only less bright. It is formed by the most visible luminaries of the celestial formation. Quite a lot of people believe that Ursa Minor is limited to these seven objects, although in fact it contains 18 more stars.

The second asterism is much less known and its name goes back to ancient times, when the two luminaries that formed it, called Ferkad and Kohab, were located closer to the pole than the North Star.

Meteor showers

Ursa Minor serves as the radiant of the last “starburst” of the year, which has been studied rather poorly. Its radiant lies near the Little Dipper, the meteor shower occurs from December 17 to 25 and is extremely unpredictable. Usually, on the most active days, from 10 to 20 meteors are visible in it per hour, which is of little interest to the average observer. But there are unpredictable bursts of activity when their number exceeds a hundred. Such “fruitful” years for meteors were 1988, 1994, 2000, 2006, and especially 1945 and 1986. This is the northernmost of these showers - it owes its birth to the short-period comet Tuttle.

In addition to the main stars, the galaxies located in Ursa Minor are of interest. The already mentioned Dwarf, which is a satellite of the Milky Way, was discovered in 1954. This is a fairly old galaxy, at least ten billion years old. It is too small to see if it contains gas, dust or any star formation. Sometimes, due to its location close to the Earth's rotation axis, it is called Polarissima.

In addition, the constellation contains the galaxies NGC 6217 and NGC 5832. All of these objects are very small on a cosmic scale, and therefore it is impossible to observe them without good optical equipment.

History of the constellation

One of the most famous constellations is Ursa Minor. It is small in size and has no bright stars. Where is Ursa Minor located and is it important? This cluster of stars is located near the north pole. For many centuries it played an important role in astronomy, navigation and more.

Origin of the constellation

The constellation is one of the oldest star clusters, making it difficult to determine its exact origin. In ancient writings, Homer mentions Ursa Major, but information about Ursa Minor was recorded later, around the seventh century BC. In his writings, Strabo wrote that in the era of Homer, most likely, there was no Ursa Minor, since this group of stars was not yet known until the Phoenicians began to use them for navigation.

Astronomers suggest that previously people did not know where Ursa Minor was located and had no idea about its existence. It was placed in a separate constellation only because of its close location to the north pole. Ursa Minor is the easiest way to navigate. It was introduced into astronomy around the year six hundred BC by F. Miletus.

Myths and legends

There are legends and myths about the constellation. The first myth says that Rhea’s own mother hid the baby from father Kronos, who, because of a prophecy, killed all his children. When Zeus was born, his mother placed a stone in his place, thus deceiving Kronos. She hid the baby in a cave, where he was nursed by two she-bears, Helis and Melissa, who were later taken to heaven. And when Zeus grew up, he overthrew his father and freed his brothers and sisters. They all became Olympian gods.

Another legend speaks of Callisto, daughter of Lycaon, ruler of Arkadi. The legend says that the queen had an unusual beauty that delighted Zeus. He took the guise of the huntress goddess Artemis, whom Callisto served. Zeus penetrated the girl, and her son Arkan was born. Zeus' wife Hera found out about this and turned Callisto into a bear. Years later, Arkan grew up. One day, while going hunting, he saw and walked along it, suspecting nothing. I wanted to kill the beast. But Zeus did not allow this to happen and turned his son also into a bear: he transferred Callisto and Arkan to heaven. This act angered Hera. She met with Poseidon and asked not to let her husband’s mistress and her child into her kingdom. Because of this, Ursa Minor and Ursa Major never go beyond the horizon.

Constellation location

Where is Ursa Minor and how to find it? Before you try to find a constellation in the sky, you should know what it looks like. The main part of the constellation is the ladle. It is not as visible in the sky as the Big Dipper's bucket.

To find all the stars in a constellation, you must first find Ursa Major. An imaginary vertical line with a slight bend is drawn through the outer stars of the bucket. Then it is extended upward by five similar segments. The line will lead to the North Star. It is bright and is the end of the handle of the Ursa Minor dipper. What's next? Where is Ursa Minor and where to go from the North Star? Then from the North Star you need to move towards the Big Dipper, which is where the bucket itself is located. Unlike the Big Dipper, the handle of the Little Dipper is curved in the opposite direction. Now it has become clear where Ursa Minor is located in relation to the Big Dipper.

The main thing is not to confuse

This constellation, like the Bolshoi, has seven stars, but they are not so bright. Three objects are the brightest, while the other four are not always visible in the night sky. Because of this feature, many who like to look through a telescope often incorrectly identify the bucket. They manage to mistake the Pleiades dipper for Ursa Minor. Knowing where Ursa Minor is, and if you find it at least once, it is unlikely that you will ever lose sight of it.

The brightest stars of the bucket

To find out where Ursa Minor is located, you need to learn to identify the North Star. How to find it is discussed above.

The Small Bucket is formed by the following stars:

• Beta or Kohab;
• Gamma or Ferkad;
• Yildun;
• Polar.

There are other stars that form the scoop and handle.

The North Star will tell you where the constellation Ursa Minor is located. This is the brightest star, comparable in brilliance to the objects of the Big Dipper. By the way, in the list of the brightest stars it ranks only 48th, and it is not the brightest, as people far from astronomy believe. The North Star can be called a nail, which is motionless in the night sky, and around which all other stars move.

The next star is Kohab or Beta. It is similar in brilliance to Polar. Kohab glows with an orange glow. This star is cooler than our Sun, and is forty times larger in size.

Ferkab is another giant among the stars. It is hotter than Kokhaba and Polar Star, but is several times inferior in brilliance.

All stars of the constellation

Ferkab, Kohab and Polaris are the brightest stars of Ursa Minor, which are always visible. There are forty-seven objects in the constellation, but only seven can be seen with the naked eye, and only in good weather. Usually only three stars are visible.

Seven stars create a scoop and handle, using them you can quickly and easily determine where Ursa Minor is located in the sky. The remaining forty stars are not taken into account by amateurs. However, if all these stars are connected with lines, you get a schematic image of a bear, although some argue that it looks more like a dog. For your information, the ancient Greeks called the North Star Cynosura, which translated means the tail of a dog. Maybe they also schematically connected the stars into constellations and saw a cute dog in the drawing? The answer to this question will remain a mystery for both astronomers and scientists around the world.