Ursa Major

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Abbreviation:  UMa

English Name:  The Great Bear

Genitive: Dubhe

Hemisphere: Northern Hemisphere

Location: Between the constellations of Canes Venatici and Lynx.

Visible between latitudes:  +90 and -30 degrees

Best season: Spring

Seen in three seasons: Winter, Spring and Summer

Best seen in: Circumpolar, better in April (This constellation of Ursa Minor stays in the sky all the year.)

Seen between: October and December

Right Ascension (RA): 11 hour

Declination (DEC): +50 degrees

Area (square degrees): 1,280 (3rd)

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Ursa Major (The Great Bear)

• Famous the seven stars forming the asterism known as `The Plough`, sometimes, `The Big Dipper` are known well to nearly everyone living in Northern Hemisphere.
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• It contains no open clusters or diffuse nebula because of far away from the galactic plane, it does have many galaxies (although many of them are faint), including several Messier Objects (M81, M82, M101, M108 and M109) as well as M97 – Owl Nebula (Planetary Nebula).
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• Ursa Major Moving Cluster, also known as Collinder 285 (C285), all stars in Moving Cluster, except for Dubhe and Alkaid, are moving in roughly the same direction at roughly the same speed through the space.
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• Using two stars; Dubhe and Merak, which is useful pointer toward North (Polaris at Ursa Minor).

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Messier Objects in Ursa Major

• M40 – Two stars; known as Winnecke 4 or WNC 4, Charles Messier was searched for any nebula, he was mistake to spot its as nebula, really he saw was a double star – very near each other and very small. They have always appeared as a wide pair to observers with better telescopes to compare Charlies Messier’s telescope in the past. (Magnitude:- +9.6 and 10.1)
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• M81 – Spiral Galaxy; also known as Bode’s Galaxy or NGC 3031, visible in binoculars and appearing extremely large, elongated with extremely bright nucleus. (Magnitude: +6.9)
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• M82 – Believed to be an Irregular Galaxy; also known as Cigar Galaxy (NGC 3034), along with M81 – very bright, large and very elongated; spindle-shaped as cigar! It is detectable in binoculars as a faint elongated object, and shows slightly more detail with large telescopes. (Magnitude: +8.4)
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• M97 – Planetary Nebula; also known as The Owl Nebula – resembles the face of an owl with two dark “eyes” but not visible in binoculars, appearing as bluish disk with 4-inch telescopes. A telescope of 8-inch or more is required to show some structure. (Magnitude: +9.9)
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• M101 – face-on Spiral Galaxy; also known as Pinwheel Galaxy – detectable in binoculars, because of face-on but its arms are not readily visible with amateur equipment and appears as a faint elliptical halo. (Magnitude: +7.7)
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• M108 – Barred Spiral Galaxy; bright, very large and very elongated; nearly edge-on but no visible nucleus – easy to mistake for a supernova. (Magnitude: +10.0)
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• M109 – Barred Spiral Galaxy; the prominent central bar is easy to detect with small telescopes, although it requires good seeing, even from 8-inch telescopes. (Magnitude: +9.8) (photo)
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More objects in Ursa Major

Features of Interest

• NGC 4501 – Spiral Galaxy; also known as Messier 88 (M88), on the border with Canes Venatici, bright nebulous glow because of the extended spiral arms, only the nucleus is readily detectable with smaller than 8-inch telescopes.
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• NGC 4088 – Spiral Galaxy; the outer regions become visible only with 8-inch or more telescopes.

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Named Stars

• Dubhe (Alpha UMa)
• Merak (Beta UMa)
• Phad (Gamma UMa)
• Megrez (Delta UMa)
• Alioth (Epsilon UMa)
• Mizar (Zeta UMa)
• AlkaidL (Eta UMa)
• Talitha (Iota UMa)
• Tania Borealis (Lambda UMa)
• Tania Australis (Mu UMa)
• Alula Borealis (Nu UMa)
• more list of stars in Ursa Major.

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Planetarium / Constellation Map

Live constellation visible from the UK :- Planetarium (Ursa Major)

Best Seen in: Circumpolar, better in April

Seen between: October and December

IAU Sky Chart: Ursa Major

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Constellations – Visible from the UK

Andromeda	Aquarius	Aquila	Aries		Auriga
Boötes	Camelopardalis	Cancer	Canes Venatici		Canis Major
Canis Minor	Capricornus	Cassiopeia	Cepheus		Cetus
Coma Berenices	Corona Borealis	Corvus	Crater		Cygnus
Delphinus	Draco	Equuleus	Gemini		Hercules
Hydra	Lacerta	Leo	Leo Minor		Lepus
Libra	Lynx	Lyra	Monoceros		Ophiuchus
Orion	Pegasus	Perseus	Pisces		Sagitta
Scutum	Serpens Caput	Serpens Cauda	Sextans		Taurus
Triangulum	Ursa Major	Ursa Minor	Virgo		Vulpecula

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Parts visible from the UK

Antlia	Columba	Eridanus	Fornax		Microscopium
Piscis Austrinus	Puppis	Pyxis	Sagittarius		Scorpius
Sculptor

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Constellations: Southern Celestial Hemisphere
…..– never seen from the UK

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Back to …Constellation Names

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