Ursa Major

Ursa Major, the Big Bear, is one of the most familiar constellations. For those of us at  northern latitudes, it can be seen all year as the constellation is circumpolar.

The star in the middle of the Bid Dipper's handle is a double star,  you can see them with the naked eye if the sky is clear and your eyesight is good. The brighter of the two stars is known as Mizar, and the fainter one is Alcor.  In a telescope, Mizar turns out to be double itself so we have a three star system. All the main stars listed below except Duhbe and Alkaid are part of a moving cluster though you'll have to wait many thousands of years to notice any shift in position!

The Galaxies listed below are supposed to be good telescopic targets though I must confess I've not managed to locate them! (yet) M101 is a large face on spiral galaxy with quite a bright magnitude - that means it should show up well in a 6" telescope. I'll let you know what can be seen once I've found these elusive objects. As for the Owl nebula well I've looked but seen absolutely nothing. Maybe I'll have more luck from a dark site.

Check out the other Constellations with the navigation menu below

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