Where is the little dipper located
How to Find Ursa Minor the Little Bear Constellation (Little Dipper)
Welcome to Learn the Sky, your online resource for learning about the
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detail and need a guide, visit learnthesky.com to learn more about our
online classes we offer. Welcome! My name is Janine and in this video we will
learn about the constellation known as Ursa Minor, also sometimes called the
Little Dipper. Ursa Minor is an ancient constellation and it's an important one to
know. It contains the star called Polaris
which is also known as the North Star. This is the only star in the sky
that appears not to move. Knowing the location of this star can be very
helpful for navigational purposes since it always indicates where the northern
direction is. Ursa Minor is an ancient constellation and the earliest records
date back to the ancient Babylonians. It's recognized in many cultures
throughout human history. The name Ursa Minor is Latin for lesser bear. In
the 2nd century it was included in Ptolemy's 48 constellations and is now
counted among the 88 modern constellations. This constellation is so
important because it contains Polaris the North Star and this star, right here,
does not appear to move in the sky. It's often called the Little
Dipper, which is technically an asterism and not its true name. We can use the
Little Dipper because that's certainly what it looks like. So, when can you see
Ursa Minor? It can be seen all year round in the Northern Hemisphere. The best
way to find it is to use the pointer stars in Ursa Major which is also called
the Big Dipper. These two stars will point directly to the North Star. You can
also use Cassiopeia to help you navigate
towards the direction of Polaris as well. Sometimes this constellation can be
challenging to see. As you're looking at this picture, three of the
stars are pretty bright of second magnitude but the other four stars are
pretty faint. So, sometimes when you're looking at it you can really only see
three stars out of the seven that makes up this star pattern. Let's examine one
of the more famous legends about Ursa Minor that comes from Roman mythology.
It's about a woman named Callisto and her son, Arcas. Jupiter the King of the
Gods in Roman mythology lusted after a woman named Callisto. Callisto had a
son named Arcus. Jupiter's wife, Juno, believed that the son was Jupiter's so
Juno transform Callisto into a bear so Jupiter would no longer desire her. Arcus
encountered his mother in bear form while he was hunting in the forest and
he nearly killed her. So, Jupiter decided to transform Arcus into a bear to
protect both mother and son from his wife, Juno. And he placed them both in the
sky together. This is just one version of the story I read about. In reality
there's a variety of myths and legends that exist about Ursa Major and Ursa
Minor. The mythologies of the star vary according to time, place, and culture.
There is really no one true mythology story for any constellation. There's just
a variety of them. Now, it's time to get familiar with the pattern of Ursa Minor. So
here is the official star map of the constellation Ursa Minor. You can see
it contains seven stars in the pattern, but remember constellations are really
like borders of countries. All the stars that fall within this white
section are part of the constellation. If you look at the magnitude scale
right here, and compare it to the stars in Ursa Minor, you can see that really
only three of the stars are of lower magnitude which
means that they are brighter. The other four stars are pretty faint, so this can
be challenging when you're looking for Ursa Minor. It also has that ladle shape.
So, you kind of have the the cup of the ladle and then here would be the handle.
It kind of curves in this direction. So, here we have a picture of Ursa Minor.
Are you able to see the three main bright stars in it and then point out
the other four fainter stars? Here's what Ursa Minor looks like and right here
this is Polaris, that star that's oriented over the North celestial pole,
which in turn makes it appear not to move. Let's get some more practice. So,
here again, we have Ursa Minor. Can you point out that ladle shape, the dipper
shape? So, right here we have these four stars and then the handle curves upward
towards Polaris. Now, the best way to find this constellation is using the Little
or the Big Dipper, also which is part of a pattern within the bigger
constellation of Ursa Major. So, whenever you talk about Ursa Minor it's usually
with Ursa Major. Not only because of the legend but because you use these two
constellations to help navigate and to find each other. So, what we're looking at
here is a collection of constellations that can be seen throughout the year. So,
the serpent polar constellations- they lie very close to Polaris, so you can see
them all year round in the Northern Hemisphere. So, if you're looking at this
picture, the star that's right in the middle is Polaris. So, from there can you
find the handle and then the cut part of Ursa Minor. So, if we were to point things
out, this is what we have we have Ursa Minor, right here, and then we have Ursa
Major which is really this is just the Big Dipper part of Ursa Major, and here
are the pointer stars that you use to point you towards Polaris. You can
also use Cassiopeia, right here. You can use that middle star kind of like an
arrow pointing you right towards Ursa Major. So, these are the two
constellations you can use to help find the North Star. There are a few other
constellations here. We have Cepheus, right there, which is right next to
Cassiopeia; and then we have a part of Draco. Draco is a really large
constellation, so it doesn't fit in this entire photograph. But, how can you tell
the difference between Ursa Major and Ursa Minor? There are some differences.
These are the three differences I use to help teach others how they look
different. So, with Ursa Major the handle is concave it's much larger in
size when you compare it to Ursa Minor. Then, if you look at the the
different stars, here, that are in the Big Dipper, they're all relatively the same
magnitude. So, it stands out really really well in the sky. When you look
at Ursa Minor, it kind of has this convex handle. It's smaller in size and
really only three of the main stars are easily seen. I have another diagram here
for you to help kind of demonstrate this concept. But again, the handles curve
differently, Ursa Major is much bigger than Ursa Minor, and, in fact, we're really
only looking at the asterisms here. The Big Dipper and Little Dipper. For the Big
Dipper, that asterism is smaller than the whole constellation. But, for the Little
Dipper, the Little Dipper asterism is the exact same of the as the pattern of Ursa
Minor. So again, more stars are kind of visible here in the Big Dipper where you
have these three stars- are really the ones that are bright. So, use these
strategies to help you find the differences between these two asterisms
and constellations. Now we'll take a look at the brighter stars in this star
pattern. So, here we have a picture of Ursa Minor and hopefully you're starting
to learn the pattern how the handle curves and
these four stars connect as well. We have these two brighter stars and then this
is Polaris. So, let's learn a little bit more about Polaris. It's estimated to be
432 light years away and it's a
yellow white supergiant star, at least the main star of this triple star system.
So, if we zoom in here, remember we use the pointer stars to find Polaris. Here
we have Polaris A and Polaris B. If you had a telescope and aim it
towards Polaris you're most likely able to find Polaris B but you're not likely
to find the smaller Polaris A bbecause it's just too close to the larger star
in the system. If we take a look a closer look at this system, we have the large
white giant star, right here; and then you have Polaris Ab, that's very close to
the main star; and then here is Polaris B. Now, all of these stars are larger than
our Sun, but Polaris B and Polaris Ab are only about 1.3 to 1.2 times the mass
of our Sun. So, those two stars are very similar to our own star. But, Polaris A is
estimated to be 4.5 times the mass of our own Sun. Remember I want to give
you a visual as to why this star system is so important. It is situated over our
North celestial Pole. So, what does that mean? So, here we have an image of the
Earth and it shows you the axial tilt. So, the tilt of the earth is estimated to be
23 and 1/2 degrees. Then here this little star represents Polaris and
Polaris is oriented over our axial tilt. That's why it appears not to move in
the sky. Finally, we'll move on to the celestial objects we can see. Ursa
Minor is pretty devoid of any celestial objects. There's no nebulae and there's
no star cluster situated in the boundaries of this constellation. I
picked out this map because it shows you a little
more than the previous map of where this one particular celestial object is and
it is a galaxy right here. It's name is NGC 6217 and it's a barred spiral
galaxy estimated be 67 million light-years away. Here we have Ursa
Minor and this is kind of its general location of where it would be. So, it's a
barred spiral galaxy because it has that bar running right through the center and
then the arms spiral out from there. This concludes our video about Ursa Minor. So,
let's review everything we've learned about it so far. It's best seen pretty
much all year round in the Northern Hemisphere if you happen to live there.
It's classified as a circumpolar constellation which means that it can be
seen all year round. The best way to find it is learning how to recognize the Big
Dipper and use the pointer stars to find Ursa Minor. You can also use the
constellation Cassiopeia to light your way as well. The brighter stars include
Polaris, Kochab and Pherkad. There are some celestial objects. There's a
couple galaxies, but otherwise it's pretty devoid of any type of celestial
objects besides these pairs of galaxies. So, I wish you luck in finding Ursa Minor.
It's a constellation that took me time to be able to find it
simply because I was looking for seven stars, but in reality really can only see
about three of them clearly, especially if you live in an area that has light
pollution. Remember use the Big Dipper to help you find this constellation and
once you learn how to do it, you'll always be able to find the North
direction. Good luck and keep looking up!
you
