Sky Maps Database: Ursa Major/The Big Dipper
Toogle Constellation and Nebula Picture
Toogle Natural Image
The Big Dipper is probably the first constellation you were able to recognize in the sky, or the first one you will be able to. There's no doubt that it's the most famous one out there. A variety of deep sky objects can be observed in Ursa Major,
such as the whirlpool galaxy, M 51. In a 200mm (8 inch) reflector, we start to see the spiral arms going out of the galaxy's bulb. It was the first one to be recognized as a spiral nebula by Lord Rosse in the late 1800's.
An easily separable double star (two stars rotating around one another) can be seen on the map, part of the big dipper's handle: The couple Mizar/Alcor (Mizar is the brightest). The Arabs, who largely contributed to Astronomy, gave names to lots of stars, such as these two. They said that if you could see the two stars, and not just one, your eyes were working well.
M 101 (pronounce Messier 101) is also an easy target. As you can see from the map, there's a dot-to-dot line that can be drawn from the double star couple Alcor/Mizar to the galaxy. These stars can be seen with the unaided eye.
But yet another galaxy couple, can be seen in the same field of view when a low power is used. The Cigar galaxy (M 82) and M 81. Both are magnificient. Messier 82 is actually an active galaxy, pictures of it show it to be quite unstable. M 81 and M 82 are colliding galaxies, but they don't really make a couple, as there is a third galaxy, but it's less interesting to observe, even though observable with an 8 inch newtonian.
Messier 97, the owl nebula, is a very cute little planetary, although it is quite dim.
Close Search Results
