Generalities: it is the constellation of the Polar star. It is  clearly a less showy constellation  than the Big Bear, but it contains the star that, because of its extreme proximity to the celestial north pole, appears immovable in the sky. Even the Little Bear forms a  figure similar to a wagon, of smaller dimensions, said Little Dipper. These stars are above the Polar star at midnight in April.

Origins and mythology: this constellation represents Arcade, child of Callisto, the beautiful daughter of the king of Arcadia and Zeus. His mother is represented by the Big Bear, while Arcade was set in the sky to  avoid killing unawarely his mother during a shooting party, who had been transformed by Zeus into a she-bear to subtract her from Juno’s angers .

Stars: the Little Bear contains only three stars under  magnitude 4. The Polar star has magnitude 1.99 and white-yellow color. Its distance is not certain, but it is esteemed to be about  360 light-years. The other two brightest stars of the Little Bear are those  belonging to the Little Dipper, opposite the rudder. They are the orange Kochab, of magnitude 2.08 and the white Pherkad, of magnitude 3.05.

Table of stars brighter than magnitude 3.5
 

Star	Proper name	Magnitude	Spectrum	Colour	Distance (light-years)	Notes
Alpha	Polaris	1.99 (variable)	F8	white-yellow	680
Beta	Kochab	2.08	K4	orange	95
Gamma	Pherkad	3.05	A3	white	225

Other objects: in the Little Bear  no particularly interesting objects are present.

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