In the sky, on a starry night, you can find the constellation Little Dipper with the naked eye. It is made up of the seven brightest stars in the constellation of the Little Dipper, or Ursa Minor.
The Little Dipper: How to find it in the night sky
The Big Dipper or Big Dipper is easy to spot in the night sky, even for laymen, because of its striking formation. You can also find the Little Dipper with the naked eye, but you usually have to use its larger counterpart as a guide to find it.
- Pick a clear night where the moonlight is not shining brightly. Look to the north. If you want to see the individual stars even more clearly, you can use binoculars or a telescope.
- Try to spot the Big Dipper first. It is a very good guide to finding the Little Dipper.
- Look at the trapezoid and find the front of the Big Dipper. Now draw the outer line in your head from the lower to the upper side of the wagon. Also look at our picture for this.
- After you have extended the line about five times, you will come across a bright star. This is Polaris, our North Star
Worth knowing about the Little Dipper and Polaris
You can see the constellation Ursa Minor all year round. In addition, you can use Polaris to orient yourself in the night sky.
- Both the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper are circumpolar. This means you can find them in the starry sky all year round.
- The polar star Polaris, which belongs to the Little Dipper, always points north. Within 25,700 years, the Platonic year, the celestial poles will shift so that Polaris will no longer be in the north. Then, theoretically, a new star would be Polaris.
Origin of the names Little Bear and Little Dipper
The name Little Dipper refers to the clearly recognisable shape of the constellation. The Big and Little Dipper have their origins in ancient Greece.
- In one myth it is said that the nymph Callisto slept with Zeus, the father of the gods. In some traditions he seduced her with a trick, in others Zeus raped the nymph.
- Callisto is rejected by the other nymphs because of her pregnancy and gives birth to their son Arkas.
- Zeu’s wife Hera knows of the events and wants revenge out of jealousy. She wants to rob Callisto of her beauty by turning her into a bear. She later transforms the son Arkas into a bear as well.
- Hera’s final act of revenge is to ensure that mother and son are never allowed to refresh themselves in the sea. Even after they are immortalised in the stars, the constellations never set.
