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The stars of Ursa Minor are quite faint, so they can be difficult to spot in the night sky unless it is completely dark. However, if you look at a perfectly dark sky, you can find Ursa Minor by finding Polaris, which is part of this constellation.
Steps
Part 1
Use Ursa Major to find Ursa Minor- Travel outside the city limits. If you live in a large city or suburb, you're probably familiar with the term "light pollution." Due to the large number of street lamps, indoor lights, terrace lamps and other various forms of electric lighting that are turned on in the city at night, it can be difficult to see anything in the darkness of the night sky. As a result, it is also difficult to see the stars, especially when it comes to stars as dim as those of Ursa Minor. You'll need to drive away from city or suburban lights if you want to see skies dark enough to spot Ursa Minor.
- Move away from the obstacles. Low fences, bushes and small objects on the horizon will not block your view, which cannot be said about large trees, barns and similar structures. Increase your chances of seeing Ursa Minor by choosing a location with the fewest potential obstructions.
- Go out when the weather is good. Ideally, you should go looking for Ursa Minor when the sky is only slightly cloudy. Too much cloud cover will completely hide the stars. You can also go stargazing when the sky is completely clear, but under these conditions the moon may appear brighter, which will prevent you from seeing the fainter stars of Ursa Minor.
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Find the North Star. Look north to find the North Star. If you want to find the constellation Ursa Minor, know. that Polaris is the brightest and easiest to find. However, you will need Ursa Major to do this.
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Find Ferkad and Kohab. These are the two stars on the front edge of the Ursa Minor bowl. Apart from the North Star, these two are the only ones that are relatively easy to see with the naked eye.
- Ferkad forms the “upper corner” of the Ursa Minor bowl, and Kohab forms the “lower corner” of the bowl.
- These stars are also called the "Guardians of the Pole" because they revolve or march around the North Star. These are the closest bright stars to Polaris, and other than Polaris itself, these two will be the closest bright stars to Earth's pole or axis.
- The brightest star is Kohab, which is a second magnitude star with an orange glow. Ferkad is a third magnitude star, and quite visible.
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Connect the dots. Once you find the three bright stars of Ursa Minor, you can gradually explore the sky around them to find the other four stars that complete the picture.
Part 2
Seasonal changes and other factors to consider-
Spring and autumn. The position of Ursa Minor differs slightly depending on the time of year. During the spring and summer, Ursa Minor tends to be slightly higher in the night sky. In autumn and winter, it is usually a little lower and closer to the horizon.
- The rotation of the Earth around the Sun also affects how you see the constellation. Because the Earth is tilted on its axis, the relationship of your geographic location to the stars that form Ursa Minor may be closer or further away. This angle changes, causing stars to appear either higher or lower in the night sky.
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Increase your chances by choosing the right time of year. While Ursa Minor can technically be found at any time of year under the right circumstances, the easiest time to see it is on a spring evening or winter morning.
- At this time, the stars that form Ursa Minor should be quite high in the sky. The brightness of the stars themselves will not change, but you will have clearer visibility.
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Don't look for this constellation in the southern hemisphere. As noted earlier, the positions of Ursa Minor and Polaris will change depending on the latitude of the area in which you are located. If you go all the way south, below the equator in the southern hemisphere, the northern sky, including the North Star and the Ursa Major, will not be visible.
- If you live in the northern hemisphere, the North Pole and both Ursa Major and Ursa Minor will be subpolar, meaning they can be found above the horizon. However, if you are in the southern hemisphere, these stars will lie below the horizon.
- Keep in mind that at the North Pole, the North Star will be directly above you in the sky. If you are at the South Pole, Polaris will be directly below you, at a point far beyond your line of sight.
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Choose the right environment. Before you go looking for a constellation, make sure the night sky is conducive to it. This is especially important if you're looking for Ursa Minor, as some of its stars are quite dim.
Looking up, on cloudless nights it is easy to find the large bucket of the Big Dipper, but the problem of how to find the Little Dipper turns out to be impossible for many: its stars are quite dim, and the bright light of street lamps and advertising structures, interior lighting of residential premises and other light sources switched on at night in the city interfere with the natural light environment of nature.
The night sky is poorly visible through city illumination, so it is best to enjoy the beauty of the stars in an open space, where neither buildings nor artificial lighting interfere.
On a full moon, even the light of the Moon can interfere, interrupting with its brightness the modest stars of the desired constellation. The ideal place and time for looking at the stars in the sky would be a moonless night in the steppe in a place located in the northern hemisphere of our planet.
Although the constellation Ursa Minor is small and its components are not very bright, its location in the sky near the north celestial pole is notable. It consists of 25 stars, large enough to be seen on a clear moonless night without any aids.
Its configuration includes the North Star, which is almost exactly located at the north pole of the world and therefore convenient for orientation to the cardinal points. Due to the slow shift of the earth's axis, the situation will change over time and another star will indicate the northern direction, but in the next 1200 years, you can confidently use Ursa Minor as a guide by finding the tip of the handle of its ladle.
Despite the 25 stars in this constellation, it is recognized by the seven largest of them, forming a memorable figure in the sky, similar to a ladle, at the end of the handle of which is the polar star. It is visible on Russian territory all year round and is one of the figures that serve as excellent landmarks for the initial study of the starry sky.
Guidelines for finding a small bucket
To understand how to find Ursa Minor, you need:
- know what the desired configuration looks like;
- understand that the small bucket includes only 3 more or less bright stars, and therefore a certain skill is needed;
- know the landmarks next to which the necessary stars are located in the sky.
The easiest way to start your search is with the brightest star in the constellation Ursa Minor - Polaris.
The reference point here will be the Ursa Major bucket. Even a beginner will not have any difficulty finding it.
And then everything depends only on the eye:
- Find a large dipper: in winter and autumn it descends to the horizon in the north, in summer they look for it in the west, where it hangs with its handle up, and in spring it is found in the east standing vertically with its handle down.
- Through the 2 extreme stars that form the side wall of the dipper (a and ß of the Big Dipper), mentally draw a line and extend it upward in relation to the bowl of the dipper.
- Mentally plot on this line 5 times the distance between a and ß, taken as a basis.
- In the calculated area in the sky, find a star of approximately the same brightness. This will be Polar, marking the end of the handle of the Little Dipper. The small ladle itself will stretch towards the Big Dipper, but its handle will bend in the opposite direction.
In the urban sky, illuminated by extraneous light sources, it is easy to find only three stars of the bucket, one of which is Polaris.
The chance of detecting the rest is much less, and sometimes due to excessive ambient lighting they are not visible at all. Therefore, without sufficient experience, it is difficult to immediately recognize the desired group of stars. But after several trainings, the search will be easy, especially since the handle of the ladle is attached like a nail in the sky by the North Star to the point around which it rotates, as if on a leash.
City residents stopped looking at the starry sky, which is difficult to see due to the lighting of the streets and surrounding high-rise buildings. But looking at the star dome calms thoughts and emotions.
By focusing on the search for Ursa Minor, you can escape the hustle and bustle of the work week and think about the beauty of other worlds, located so far away that the light from them has not yet reached our planet.
Learning to find Ursa Minor, Cassiopeia and Dragon
Prepared by O. Malakhov
So, let's begin our acquaintance with the starry sky. Today we will get acquainted with the four constellations of the Northern sky: Ursa Major, Ursa Minor (with the famous Polar Star), Draco and Cassiopeia. All these constellations, due to their proximity to the North Pole of the World, are non-setting in the European territory of the former USSR. Those. they can be found in the starry sky on any day and at any time. The first steps should begin with the well-known “bucket” of the Big Dipper. Did you find it in the sky? If not, then to find it, remember that on summer evenings the “bucket” is located in the northwest, in autumn – in the north, in winter – in the northeast, in spring – directly overhead. Now pay attention to the two outermost stars of this “bucket” (see figure).
If you mentally draw a straight line through these two stars, then the first star, the brightness of which is comparable to the brightness of the stars in the “bucket” of the Big Dipper, will be the North Star, which belongs to the constellation Ursa Minor. Using the map presented in the figure, try to find the remaining stars of this constellation. If you are observing in an urban environment, then it will be difficult to see the stars of the “small dipper” (that is how the constellation Ursa Minor is unofficially called): they are not as bright as the stars of the “big dipper”, i.e. Ursa Major. For this it is better to have binoculars on hand. When you see the constellation Ursa Minor, you can try to find the constellation Cassiopeia. I don’t know about you, but for me it was initially associated with another “bucket”. It’s more like a “coffee pot.” So, look at the second-to-last “bucket handle” star of Ursa Major. This is the star next to which there is an asterisk barely visible to the naked eye. The bright star is named Mizar, and the one next to it is Alcor (here is the range of iconic Soviet telescopes for astronomy enthusiasts produced by the Novosibirsk Instrument-Making Plant (Refinery)). They say that if translated from Arabic, Mizar is a horse, and Alcor is a rider. Being familiar with the Arabic language, I cannot confirm this, but we will trust the books.
So, Mizar has been found. Now draw a mental line from Mizar through the North Star and further to approximately the same distance. And you will probably see a rather bright constellation in the form of the Latin letter W (see picture). This is Cassiopeia. It still looks a bit like a “coffee pot,” doesn’t it?
After Cassiopeia, we try to find the constellation Draco. As can be seen from the picture at the top of the page, it seems to extend between the “buckets” of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, going further towards Cepheus, Lyra, Hercules and Cygnus. We will talk about these constellations a little later, and, having gained basic experience in orienting in the starry sky, try to find the entire Draco constellation using the mentioned picture.
Now you should be able to easily find the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, Cassiopeia, and Draco in the sky.
Questions:
1. In what area of the sky was the constellation Cassiopeia located during your observations?
2. In what area of the sky was the “bucket” of the Big Dipper located?
3. Were you able to see Alcor with the naked eye?
Probably, the Big Dipper is exactly the constellation with which each of us began our acquaintance with the starry sky (and for many, unfortunately, it ended there...) Let us also begin with this wonderful constellation. By the way, this is one of the largest constellations in our sky by area and the familiar “bucket” is only part of it. Why did the ancient Greeks see this particular beast here? According to their ideas, in the north there was a huge Arctic country, inhabited only by bears. (In Greek, “arktos” means bear, hence “arctic” - the country of bears.) So it is not surprising that it is images of bears that adorn the northern part of the sky.
One of the ancient Greek legends tells about these constellations:
Once upon a time, King Lycaon ruled in Arcadia. And he had a daughter - the beautiful Callisto. Even Zeus himself admired her beauty.
Secretly from his jealous wife, the goddess Hera, Zeus often met with his beloved and soon Callisto gave birth to a son, Arkad. The boy grew up quickly and soon became an excellent hunter.
But Hera learned about the love of Zeus and Callisto. In her anger, she turned Callisto into a bear. Returning from hunting in the evening, Arkad saw a bear at home. Not knowing that this was his mother, he pulled the bowstring... But it was not for nothing that Zeus was all-seeing and all-powerful - he grabbed the bear by the tail and carried it to the sky, where he left it in the form of the constellation Ursa Major. Only while he was carrying her, the bear’s tail stretched out...
Together with Callisto, Zeus carried her beloved maid to the sky, turning her into the small constellation Ursa Minor. Arkad also remained in the sky as the constellation Bootes.
Now between the constellations Ursa Major and Bootes there is the constellation Canes Venatici, introduced by Jan Hevelius, which successfully fits into the ancient Greek myth - the hunter Bootes keeps the Canes Venatici on a leash, ready to cling to the huge Ursa.
Big Dipper
The constellation Ursa Major is famous not only because it can be used to easily find the North Star in the sky, but it also contains many interesting objects that can be observed with simple amateur instruments.
Look at the middle star in the "handle" of the Big Dipper - ζ, this is one of the most famous double stars - Mizar and Alcor (these are Arabic names, like most star names, they are translated as Horse and Rider). These stars are located quite far from each other in space (such pairs are called optical binaries), but the brighter star - Mizar - also appears as a double in a telescope. This time the stars are actually connected by gravitational forces (a physical double star) and revolve around a common center of mass. The brighter star has a magnitude of 2.4 m, 14" from it there is a companion - a star with a magnitude of 4 m. But that’s not all - each of these stars is also double, only these pairs are so close that they cannot be separated in the largest telescopes and only spectral observations can detect duality (such stars are called spectroscopic binaries). So Mizar is a quadruple star (not counting Alcor). In one place we can observe examples of all types of double stars at the same time.
Constellation Ursa Major. (hover your mouse over an item to see its photo)
And on the back of the Ursa we can see a completely different pair - galaxies M81 and M82. They are accessible for observation in small telescopes, but the most interesting details are visible only in instruments with a lens diameter of at least 150mm. M81 is a regular spiral, and the galaxy located to the north, M82, is one of the most beautiful representatives of the class of irregular galaxies. In the photographs she looks as if she had been torn apart by a monstrous explosion. True, such details cannot be seen visually, but the dark bridge in the center of the galaxy is relatively easy to observe.
Two more nebulae can be seen in the same field of view of the telescope slightly south of the “bottom of the bucket”, not far from β Ursa Major - this is the galaxy M108 and the planetary nebula M97 “Owl”.
Ursa Minor
Perhaps the only attraction of this small constellation is the North Star. Nowadays, it is located quite close to the pole - at a distance of just over 40" (however, everything is relative, this distance is noticeably greater than the apparent diameter of the Moon). This position of the Polar does not last forever - the Pole of the World shifts in the sky (this phenomenon is called precession) and approximately in a hundred years the pole will begin to slowly move away from it (you can read more about precession)
Constellations Ursa Minor and Draco. (hover your mouse over an item to see its photo)
The Dragon
This constellation stretches out in a clearly visible chain of stars around Ursa Minor. According to Greek legend, the Dragon is a monster killed by Hercules that guarded the entrance to the Garden of the Hesperides.
One of the main attractions of the constellation is the planetary Cat's Eye Nebula NGC6543. By the way, it is located in the direction of the ecliptic pole, 3000 light years from the Sun. Like most planetary nebulae, it is small in size, but easily observed with average telescopes. Unfortunately, the spectacular details of the nebula that give it its name can only be seen in photographs.
Who doesn't know where the constellation is Ursa Minor or, he never looked at the sky in the dark. He will not be able to understand at night where is north and where is south. Polaris is less than 1° from the North Celestial Pole. And you can find it in the sky in many ways: I’m sure that during school years, parents or teachers showed where it was. And if not, it’s okay, let’s get acquainted.
Legend and history
The ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician Thales of Miletus invented and added the constellation Ursa Minor to the catalog of the starry sky of Claudius Ptolemy “Almagest”.
There are many legends associated with Ursa Minor. For example, one of them is associated with the birth of Zeus. The goddess Rhea took her newborn son to the top of Mount Ida and left her there in the care of the nymphs (Kinosura) and their mother Melissa. She did this to escape from Father Kron, who was eating his children. Having matured, Zeus ascended Melissa to heaven in the form of Ursa Major, and Kinosura as Ursa Minor. By the way, on ancient maps the North Star was called Kinosura, which translated means “dog’s tail.”
Other sources (according to Arata) in ancient times called the constellation “Little Chariot” (Ursa Major - “Great Chariot”).
The Arabs perceived Ursa Minor as horsemen. Persians - seven fruits of the date palm.
The Romans depicted it as a Spartan dog.
The Indians associated this part of the sky with a monkey.
In Ancient Babylon they even saw a leopard. And so on. Each culture and civilization tried to consider something subject to it.
Characteristics
The most interesting objects to observe in the constellation Ursa Minor
1. Spiral Galaxy NGC 6217
NGC 6217- barred spiral galaxy (). The apparent magnitude is only 11 m, and the angular dimensions of the galaxy are 3.0′ × 2.5′. At the end of the 18th century (in 1797) it was discovered by the English astronomer William Herschel.
Unfortunately, to distinguish the “arms” of the galaxy you will need a powerful telescope with an aperture of 200 millimeters or more. I found a nice amateur photo of the galaxy on the Internet. NGC 6217:
In fact, if you look more closely, you can clearly distinguish spiral irregularities and a very saturated galactic core. The closest bright star to the galaxy is ζUMi(4.3 m), but it is unlikely that you will lay the route exactly from it. In the immediate vicinity of the desired deep-sky object there is a characteristic small cluster of stars, visible even in a finder - they will serve as an excellent landmark.
2. Polaris (α UMi)
First of all, Polaris (α UMI) is a star that consists of a dwarf, spectral class F. The brightness of the system is 2.02 m. The distance to the Sun is 320 light years, somewhere you can find the number 435.
Amateur telescopes will not be able to discern the second component of the star. It is located too close, plus the main component is bright. Cepheid has a pulsation period of slightly more than 4 days, while the brightness amplitude changes by 0.12 m.
The polar star is not difficult to find: one option is to mark five distances in the sky between the two stars of the bucket (Dubhe and Merak) of the Big Dipper in the direction opposite to the bottom of the bucket. If you haven’t succeeded before, be sure to practice and remember.
