Prismtect › Constellations › Ursa Minor
the Little Bear
Use the two pointer stars at the front of the Big Dipper's bowl and follow them to Polaris, the North Star. Polaris is the end of the Little Dipper's handle.
In one Greek story the Little Bear is Arcas, son of Callisto, set near his mother in the sky. Sailors used Polaris for centuries to find north and their latitude.
Polaris is not the brightest star in the sky, but it barely moves: every other star in the north turns around it through the night.
In the Babylonian star lists, Ursa Minor was the Wagon of Heaven, linked with the goddess Damkina.
The Greek writer Callimachus says Thales of Miletus "measured the stars of the Wagon by which the Phoenicians sail".
To the Arabs the Little Dipper was "the lesser funeral procession", a smaller twin of the Big Dipper's bier and mourners.
In the Hindu Puranas the pole star is Dhruva, "the fixed one".
The main stars were split between Gouchen, the Curved Array, which includes Polaris, and Beiji, the Northern Pole.
Inuit astronomy calls Polaris, Kochab and Pherkad Nuutuittut, "never moving".
Ancient Finns called the North Star the "nail star".
In the Babylonian star lists, Ursa Minor was the Wagon of Heaven, linked with the goddess Damkina. The MUL.APIN catalogue of about 1000 BC lists it among the "Stars of Enlil", the stars of the northern sky.
The Greek writer Callimachus says Thales of Miletus "measured the stars of the Wagon by which the Phoenicians sail". For this reason the Little Bear was also called the Phoenician Bear. The Greeks themselves had steered by the Great Bear. Another old name was Cynosura, "dog's tail". One story makes Cynosura a nymph who nursed the infant Zeus. In another, two bears hid baby Zeus from his father Cronus on Mount Ida. Zeus later set them in the sky, and their tails grew long as he swung them up by the tail.
To the Arabs the Little Dipper was "the lesser funeral procession", a smaller twin of the Big Dipper's bier and mourners. The North Star was al-Jady, "the young goat".
In the Hindu Puranas the pole star is Dhruva, "the fixed one". The story says the god Vishnu granted the boy sage Dhruva a boon. That is why the two front stars of the Dipper point to him.
The main stars were split between Gouchen, the Curved Array, which includes Polaris, and Beiji, the Northern Pole.
Inuit astronomy calls Polaris, Kochab and Pherkad Nuutuittut, "never moving". So far north the pole star is too high in the sky to help with navigation. The Lakota call Polaris "the Star that Sits Still". In their story he married Red Cheeked Woman, and when she fell from the sky he stayed staring down in grief forever. The Plains Cree name also means "the star that does not move".
Ancient Finns called the North Star the "nail star". It seemed fixed to the sky like a pin, with the rest of the sky turning around it like a wheel. In Old English it was scip-steorra, "ship-star", and later "lodestar", the guiding star.
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