Which constellation is the Big Dipper in?

Ursa major is one of the brightest and most important constellations in the northern sky. The famous Big Dipper is in this constellation. The constellation Ursa major can be seen all year round, and the best observation time is after dusk in spring.

The stars in Ursa major are imagined as the image of a big bear. On the map, the bucket handle of the Big Dipper is the long tail of the big bear, the four stars of the Big Dipper are the body of the big bear, and other darker stars constitute the head and feet of the big bear.

In ancient Greek mythology, this big bear is the embodiment of a gentle and beautiful girl, Crystal. Legend has it that Callisto was loved by Zeus, the king of gods, and gave birth to his son Achatz. Zeus' wife Hera was very angry when she learned about it. She decided to punish Crystal with magic. Suddenly, Callisto's white arms turned into claws covered with black hair, and his red lips turned into a maw like a maw. The beautiful girl finally became a 1 big bear. Later, Zeus knew about it, so he lifted the bear to the sky and became the constellation Ursa major.

There are more than 100 visible stars in Ursa major, including 6 second-class stars, 6 third-class stars and many other fourth-class stars. The six second-class stars are all distributed on the Big Dipper, so the Big Dipper is particularly eye-catching in Ursa Major. After dusk in spring, this big bear hangs upside down in the northern night sky, with its tail (barrel handle) pointing to the east. Therefore, our people regard the constellation Ursa major as the constellation of spring.

Ursa major has a famous binary star, which was called Kaiyang Star and Auxiliary Star in ancient China. People often use them to check their eyesight. On a clear night, if you can see the auxiliary star next to Kaiyang with naked eyes, you can reach 15 in the vision test. Astronomers have observed that although Kaiyang and the auxiliary star look very close, they are actually far away. There are many binary stars or multiple stars in the celestial sphere, which seem to be together, but in fact they are not related.