Big Dipper
The Big Dipper (
Names and places
The constellation of Ursa Major (
European astronomy
The name "Bear" is Homeric, and apparently native to Greece, while the "Wain" tradition is Mesopotamian. Book XVIII of Homer's Iliad mentions it as "the Bear, which men also call the Wain".[11] In Latin, these seven stars were known as the "Seven Oxen" (septentriones, from septem triōnēs).[12] Classical Greek mythography identified the "Bear" as the nymph Callisto, changed into a she-bear by Hera, the jealous wife of Zeus.
In Ireland and the United Kingdom, this pattern is known as the Plough (Irish: An Camchéachta – the bent plough). The
In
In Lithuanian, the stars of Ursa Major are known as Didieji Grįžulo Ratai ("The Big Back Wheels"). Other names for the constellation include Perkūno Ratai ("The Wheels of Perkūnas"), Kaušas ("The Bucket"), Vežimas ("The Carriage"), and Samtis ("The Ladle").[citation needed]
In the
Asian traditions
In
The Chinese astronomy records were translated to other
In Vietnam, the colloquial name for the asterism is Sao Bánh lái lớn (The Big Rudder Stars), contrasted with Ursa Minor, which is known as Sao Bánh lái nhỏ (The Little Rudder Stars).[27] Although this name has now been replaced by the Sino-Vietnamese "Bắc Đẩu" in everyday speech, many coastal communities in central and southern Vietnam still refer to the asterism as such and use it to navigate when their fishing vessels return from the sea at night.[28]
In
In Malay, it is known as the "Boat Constellation" (Buruj Biduk); in Indonesian, as the "Canoe Stars" (Bintang Biduk).[29]
In Burmese, these stars are known as Pucwan Tārā (ပုဇွန် တာရာ, pronounced "bazun taja"). Pucwan (ပုဇွန်) is a general term for a crustacean, such as prawn, shrimp, crab, lobster, etc.[30]
While its Western name come from the star pattern's resemblance to a
In the earliest
Inuit traditions
In Inuit astronomy, the same grouping of stars is referred to as "the Caribou" (Tukturjuit). Many of the stars within the constellation "were used as hour hands on the night sky to indicate hours of the night, or as calendar stars to help determine the date in fall, winter, or spring."[31]
In North America
The asterism name "Big Dipper" is mostly used in the
In an 1824 book on the history of the constellations' mythology, Jacob Green contrasted the "Dipper or Ladle" descriptors used in the United States with "Charles's Wagon or Wain" which were common in England.[34] Descriptions of "the dipper" appear in American astronomy textbooks throughout the 19th century.[35][36][37]
Stars
Within Ursa Major the stars of the Big Dipper have Bayer designations in consecutive Greek alphabetical order from the bowl to the handle.
Bayer designation |
Proper Name |
Apparent magnitude |
Distance (l yrs) |
---|---|---|---|
α UMa |
Dubhe | 1.8 | 124 |
β UMa |
Merak | 2.4 | 79 |
γ UMa |
Phecda | 2.4 | 84 |
δ UMa |
Megrez | 3.3 | 81 |
ε UMa |
Alioth | 1.8 | 81 |
ζ UMa |
Mizar | 2.1 | 78 |
η UMa |
Alkaid | 1.9 | 104 |
In the same line of sight as
Five of the stars of the Big Dipper are at the core of the
Guidepost
Not only are the stars in the Big Dipper easily found themselves, they may also be used as guides to yet other stars. Thus it is often the starting point for introducing Northern Hemisphere beginners to the night sky:
- Polaris, the North Star, is found by imagining a line from Merak (β) to Dubhe (α) and then extending it for five times the distance between the two Pointers.
- Extending a line from Megrez (δ) to Phecda (γ), on the inside of the bowl, leads to Regulus (α Leonis) and Alphard (α Hydrae). A mnemonic for this is "A hole in the bowl will leak on Leo."
- Extending a line from Phecda (γ) to Megrez (δ) leads to Thuban (α Draconis), which was the pole star 4,000 years ago.
- Crossing the top of the bowl from Megrez (δ) to Dubhe (α) takes one in the direction of Capella (α Aurigae). A mnemonic for this is "Cap to Capella."
- Castor (α Geminorum) is reached by imagining a diagonal line from Megrez (δ) to Merak (β) and then extending it for approximately five times that distance.
- By following the curve of the handle from Alioth (ε) to Mizar (ζ) to Alkaid (η), one reaches Arcturus (α Boötis) and Spica (α Virginis). A mnemonic for this is "Arc to Arcturus then speed (or spike) to Spica."
Additionally, the Dipper may be used as a guide to telescopic objects:
- The approximate location of the Hubble Deep Field can be found by following a line from Phecda (γ) to Megrez (δ) and continuing on for the same distance again.
- Crossing the bowl diagonally from Phecda (γ) to Dubhe (α) and proceeding onward for a similar stretch leads to the bright galaxy pair M81 and M82.
- Two spectacular spiral galaxies flank Alkaid (η), the Whirlpool(M51) to the south.
- Projecting a line from Alkaid (η) through the pole star will point to Cassiopeia.
Cultural associations
The "Seven Stars" referenced in the Bible's Book of Amos[38] may refer to these stars or, more likely, to the Pleiades.
In traditional Hindu astronomy, the seven stars of the Big Dipper are identified with the names of the Saptarshi.
In addition, the asterism has also been used in corporate logos[39] and the Alaska flag. The seven stars on a red background of the Flag of the Community of Madrid, Spain, are the stars of the Big Dipper Asterism. The same can be said about the seven stars pictured in the bordure azure of the Coat of arms of Madrid, capital city of Spain.[40]
The asterism's prominence on the north of the night sky produced the adjective "septentrional" (literally, pertaining to seven plow oxen) in Romance languages and English, meaning "Northern [Hemisphere]".
"
A mythological origin of the asterism was described in a children's story which circulated in the United States in various versions.[43][44] A version of this story taken from the pacifist magazine Herald of Peace was translated into Russian and incorporated into Leo Tolstoy's compilation A Calendar of Wisdom.[45][46]
The Constellation was also used on the flag of the Italian Regency of Carnaro within the Ouroboros.
-
The Starry Plough, used by Irish nationalists and Irish leftists.
-
The flag of Alaska, showing the Big Dipper and polaris.
-
Flag of the former unrecognized state of the Italian Regency of Carnaro.
-
The historical Coat of arms of Madrid, showing either the small or big dipper on a bear.
See also
- Abenaki mythology
- Amenominakanushi
- Apkallu
- Beidou- Chinese global satellite navigation system named after the Big Dipper
- Saptarishi
- Seven Sages of Greece
- Swastika symbols
- Taidi
References
- ^ Stern, David P. (23 April 2008). "Finding the Pole Star". Goddard Space Flight Center. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 31 August 2013.
- ^ Rao, Joe (9 May 2008). "Doorstep Astronomy: See the Big Dipper". space.com. Retrieved 31 August 2013.
- ISBN 978-1-4020-6638-2.
- S2CID 125474099.
- ISBN 978-3-319-27619-9.
- ^ Nemiroff, R.; Bonnell, J., eds. (21 April 2013). "Big Dipper". Astronomy Picture of the Day. NASA.
- ^ a b Witzel, Michael (2001), "Autochthonous Aryans? The Evidence from Old Indian and Iranian Texts" (PDF), Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies, 7 (3): 72, archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-05-23
- ^ "But whence came the same idea into the minds of our North American Indians? Was it by accident? or is it evidence of a common origin in the far antiquity of Asia? The conformation of the seven stars in no way resembles the animal, — indeed the contrary; yet they called them Okuari and Paukunawa, words for a "bear", before they were visited by the white men, as is attested by Le Clercq in 1691, by the Reverend Cotton Mather in 1712, by the Jesuit missionary La Fitau in 1724, and by the French traveler Charlevoix in 1744. And Bancroft wrote in his history of our country: [...] In justice, however, to their familiarity with a bear's anatomy, it should be said that the impossible tail of our Ursa was to them either Three Hunters, or a Hunter with his two Dogs, in pursuit of the creature; the star Alcor being the pot in which they would cook her. They thus avoided the incongruousness of the present astronomical ideas of Bruin's make-up, although their cooking-utensil was inadequate. The Housatonic Indians, who roamed over that valley from Pittsfield through Lenox and Stockbridge to Great Barrington, said that this chase of the stellar Bear lasted from the spring till the autumn, when the animal was wounded and its blood plainly seen in the foliage of the forest." Allen (1899), p. 423.
c.f. Richard H. Allen (28 February 2013). Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning. Courier Corporation. pp. 423–. ISBN 978-0-486-13766-7.
- ^ Bradley E Schaefer, The Origin of the Greek Constellations: Was the Great Bear constellation named before hunter nomads first reached the Americas more than 13,000 years ago!, Scientific American, November 2006, reviewed at The Origin of the Greek Constellations Archived 2017-04-01 at the Wayback Machine;[unreliable source?] Yuri Berezkin, The cosmic hunt: variants of a Siberian – North-American myth. Folklore, 31, 2005: 79–100.
- ^ Julien d'Huy reconstructs the following Palaeolithic state of the story: "There is an animal that is a horned herbivore, probably an elk. One human pursues this ungulate. The hunt proceeds to the sky. The animal is alive when it is suddenly transformed into a constellation-- It forms the Big Dipper" d'Huy Julien, Un ours dans les étoiles: recherche phylogénétique sur un mythe préhistorique, Préhistoire du sud-ouest, 20 (1), 2012: 91–106; A Cosmic Hunt in the Berber sky: a phylogenetic reconstruction of Palaeolithic mythology, Les Cahiers de l'AARS, 15, 2012.
- ^ Homer. "Book XVIII". The Iliad. Translated by Samuel Butler.
- ^ "Merriam-Webster dictionary". Retrieved 2017-06-06.
- ^ Scott, Walter (1805). The Lay of the Last Minstrel. James Ballantyne. Canto First. XVII.
- ^ a b Hinckley Allen, Richard (1963). "Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning – "Ursa Major"".
- ^ Bågenholm, Gösta. "Astro ordlista: Karlavagnen" [Astrological glossary: The Big Dipper]. 150 ord och begrepp inom astronomisk navigation (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 3 December 2005.
"Som pendang till Karlavagnen kallas Lilla björn (latin Ursæ Minoris) för kvinnovagnen..." — as an appendix to the Men's Wagon, the Little Bear is called the Women's Wagon
- ^ Hellquist, Elof (1922). Svensk etymologisk ordbok [Swedish etymological dictionary] (in Swedish).
Karlavagnen: "I stället sammansatt" ... – "Instead composed from the appellative karl [man] in opposition to Icelandic kvennavagn [women's wagon]"
- ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874). An Icelandic-English Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 674.
- ISBN 978-951-0-27108-7.
- ^ Hämäläinen, Pirjo (11 November 2013). "Otavassa on orjan merkki". Kansan Uutiset (in Finnish). Retrieved 21 April 2014.
- ^ Mykrä, Sakari. "Kahdensadan nimen kontio". Suurpedot.fi (in Finnish). Archived from the original on 9 February 2013. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
- ^ Naturfagsenteret.no: Stjernehimmelen (https://www.naturfagsenteret.no/c1515376/binfil/download2.php?tid=1509706)
- ^ "Beidou". AEEA (Activities of Exhibition and Education in Astronomy) 天文教育資訊 (in Chinese). 15 June 2006.
- ^ "Gan and Shi's Celestial Book". foreignercn.
- ^ "Tự điển - bắc đẩu thất tinh".
- ^ "古人对北斗七星的认识". Sohu News. 14 March 2017.
- ^ See their individual pages.
- ^ Huỳnh, Tịnh Của (1895). Đại Nam quấc âm tự vị [Dictionnaire annamite] (in Vietnamese).
Sao bánh lái: "các vì sao chòm, giống hình cái bánh lái ghe" ... – "asterisms which resemble the rudder of a wooden boat."
- ^ Phương Giang (6 February 2019). "Về từ nghìn trùng khơi". Báo Quảng Nam. Archived from the original on 25 February 2021. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
- ^ KBBI Archived 2014-05-27 at the Wayback Machine.
- ISBN 978-1-60598-755-2.
- ISBN 978-1-4419-6802-9.
- ^ "The Big Dipper". futurism.
- ISSN 0022-3840.
- ^ Jacob Green (1824). Astronomical recreations, or, Sketches of the relative position and mythological history of the constellations. Philadelphia: Anthony Finley. p. xiv. Retrieved 2023-08-18.
- ^ Amos Pettengill (1826). A view of the heavens. p. 48. Retrieved 2023-08-17.
- ^ L. N. Fowler (1848). Familiar Lessons on Astronomy; Designed for the Use of Children and Youth in Schools and Families. p. 115.
- Hannah Mary Bouvier (1857). Bouvier's familiar astronomy; An introduction to the study of the heavens. p. 213. Retrieved 2023-08-17.
- ^ Amos 5:8.
- Iridium Satellite LLC.
- ISBN 84-86353-43-2. Read the exact paragraph in which this issue is described in the Spanish version of Coat of arms of Madrid.
- ^ Joel Bresler. "Collection Story". Follow the Drinking Gourd: A Cultural History. followthedrinkinggourd.org. Retrieved 2011-06-18.
- ^ "Follow the Drinking Gourd". Owen Sound's Black History. Retrieved 2011-06-18.
- ^ Sara Eliza Witse (1885). Stories for kindergartens and primary Schools. pp. 62–67. Retrieved 2023-08-17.
- ^ Carolyn Sherwin Bailey (1906). For the Children's Hour. pp. 132–133. Retrieved 2023-08-17.
- ^ Leo Tolstoy (1919). The Pathway of Life. pp. 102–103. Retrieved 2023-08-17.
- ISBN 9780310223672. Retrieved 2023-08-17.