Probably every adult remembers a wonderful lullaby of an old Soviet cartoon about Umku.It was the first time she showed viewers a small constellation of Ursa Major.Because of this, many cartoon became interested in astronomy, I wanted to find out more about this so called strange set of bright planets.
constellation Ursa Major - the asterism of the northern hemisphere of the sky, having a huge number of names have come down to us from antiquity: Moose, plow, Seven Sages, vehicles and others.This combination of bright celestial bodies is the third largest constellation of the entire sky.Most interesting is that some parts of the "bucket", included in the constellation Ursa Major, can be seen all year round.
It is thanks to its characteristic location and brightness of this galaxy of well-recognizable.The structure consists of a constellation of seven stars, which have Arabic names, but the Greek notation.
stars in the constellation Ursa Major
| designation | name | Interpretation |
| α | Dubhe | Bear |
| β | Merak | Loin |
| γ | Gamma Ursae Majoris | Thigh |
| δ | Megrez |
Start tail |
| ε | Aliot | origin of the name is unknown |
| ζ | Mizar | loincloth |
| η |
Benetnash (Alkaid) | leader mourners |
There is a huge variety of theories about the origin of the constellation Ursa Major.
first legend is associated with Eden.Once upon a time in the world he lived the nymph Callisto - Lycaon's daughter and assistant of the goddess Artemis.About her beauty was legendary.Even Zeus himself could not resist her charms.Union god and nymphs led to the birth of her son Arcas.Angry Hera transformed Callisto into a bear.During one of his hunts Arcas almost killed his mother, but her time save Zeus, went to heaven.There he and his son moved the turning of the constellation Ursa Minor.
second legend is connected directly with Zeus.As the story goes, the ancient Greek Titan Cronus destroyed each of his successor, because it was foretold that one of them topple him from the throne.However, Rhea - mother of Zeus - decided to save the life of your child and hid him in the cave of Ida, located on the island of Crete today.It was in this cave he nurtured Amalhteia goat and two nymphs, according to legend, the former Bear.They were called Gelis and Melissa.After overthrowing his father and the rest of the Titans, Zeus gave his brothers - Hades and Poseidon - the underground kingdom and water respectively.In gratitude for the care and feeding of bears and Zeus immortalized goat, lifting them to the sky.Amalhteia became a star in the constellation Auriga.A Gelis and Melissa are now the two galaxy - the Big Dipper and Little Dipper.
Myths Mongolian people identify the asterism with the mystical number "seven".They have long been the Big Dipper is called Seven Elders, the Seven Sages, the Seven and Seven Gods Kuznetsov.There
Tibetan legend occurrence of this galaxy of bright stars.Superstition has it that once upon a time lived in the steppes of man with cow's head.In the fight against evil (in the tradition, it acts as a black bull), he stood up for the white bull (good).For this man punished witch, just an instrument of iron.The blow he broke into 7 pieces.Good white bull, to assess the contribution of man in the fight against evil, and offered it to the sky.And there was the constellation Ursa Major, which is seven bright stars.
