The Big Dipper

I had no idea how much time NCAA basketball would take to watch over the last four days - and how exhausting it was! But as I understand, the weather did not cooperate much for looking at the night sky over Bend.

Tonight promises to be different. Although I said we talk about Mars next, a constellation in tonight's sky might be worth catching. The Big Dipper is actually part of a larger constellation called Ursa Major. Sailors used the stars to guide their ships while ancient people - before the internet, before television, before written words, used these groups of stars in the night sky to tell stories.

The constellation Ursa Major contains the group of stars commonly called the Big Dipper. The handle of the Dipper is the Great Bear's tail and the Dipper's cup is the Bear's flank. The Big Dipper is not a constellation itself, but an asterism, which is a distinctive group of stars. Another famous asterism is the Little Dipper in the constellation Ursa Minor. More on Minor later on.

Can you find the North Star or Polaris?

First, you have to find the Big Dipper in the Northeast.