Ursa Major

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

in astronomy, the Great Bear, the most conspicuous of the 20 ancient northern constellations, its seven leading stars attracting notice all the more conspicuously that there is a certain absence of visible heavenly bodies in the adjacent parts of the sky. The Semitic conception of the constellation was that it resembled a bier with mourners walking behind, and it has sometimes been called specifically Lazarus' bier, the four stars constituting a four-sided figure being the bier and the other three, Mary, Martha and Mary Magdalene, the mourners. It is much like a plow, and is often called the Plow, the rectangle constituting its body, and the three projecting stars its handle. To other minds it suggests a vehicle, whence it has been called the Car of David, and sometimes Charles' Wain or Wagon. The four stars standing together are the wheels, and the three behind are the shaft. Another name is the Dipper. But astronomers cling to the old classical conception of a bear, of which the four stars, Alpha, bear, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Ursæ Majoris, are the hind quarter, and the three the tail. The remaining portions of the animal are marked out by sundry small stars of the third and fourth magnitude. The Bear was supposed to require a ward or keeper. The Arabs gave the seven conspicuous stars names, some of which are still in use. They are called Alpha, Ursæ Majoris or Dubhe; Beta, Merak; Gamma, Phecda; Delta, Megrez; Epsilon, Alioth; Zeta, Mizar; and Eta, Alcaid, or Benetnasch. The first two are called pointers, because a line drawn from Beta through Alpha and continued for about five times as far as the distance between them will reach the pole le star. Ursa Major is bounded on the N. by Draco and Camelopardalis, on the S. by Leo Minor, on the E. by Canes Venatici, and on the W. by Lynx and Camelopardalis. Of the seven stars six are of the second magnitude, the remaining one (Delta) being at present between the third or fourth magnitude. Mizar (Zeta) is a double star. Powerful telescopes show that the Great Bear is made up of many thousand other stars.