Constellations
Big Dipper
In Ursa Major
Also known as plough, the plough, plow, great wagon, saptarishi.
6 looks for Big Dipper
The constellation in a clear night sky over the hills: its lines draw themselves one on every beat, its real stars twinkle with the part of the song their colour answers, the Milky Way glows and a shooting star crosses on the big moments.
About Big Dipper
- What it is
- A star pattern: The seven brightest stars of the Great Bear: a bowl and a bent handle
- Family
- Famous star patterns
- Where
- The northern sky: seen best from north of the equator
- Highest in the sky
- At about 9 pm in May
- Centre
- Right ascension 12h 24m, declination +56° 31′
- The figure
- 7 stars joined by 7 lines
- Brightest star
- Alioth, magnitude 1.77
It sits in Ursa Major.
Its stars
Brightest first. A smaller magnitude is a brighter star; the visualizer sizes and colours each one by these.
- Alioth (ε UMa)mag 1.77
- Dubhe (α UMa)mag 1.79
- Alkaid (η UMa)mag 1.86
- Mizar (ζ UMa)mag 2.06
- Merak (β UMa)mag 2.37
- Phecda (γ UMa)mag 2.44
- Megrez (δ UMa)mag 3.31
Every star's place, brightness and colour is the Yale Bright Star Catalogue's; the figure is the IAU's, through d3-celestial (credited on the licences page). Constellations template · Every constellation