• M101 - Pinwheel Galaxy

    Object image

    M101, European Space Agency & NASA

    Object image caption

    M101. Image: European Space Agency & NASA Acknowledgements: Project Investigators for the original Hubble data: K.D. Kuntz (GSFC), F. Bresolin (University of Hawaii), J. Trauger (JPL), J. Mould (NOAO), and Y.-H. Chu (University of Illinois, Urbana) Image processing: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble) CFHT image: Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope/J.-C. Cuillandre/Coelum NOAO image: George Jacoby, Bruce Bohannan, Mark Hanna/NOAO/AURA/NSF

    Object image source

    European Space Agency & NASA
    Permission
    cc-by

  • M82 - Cigar Galaxy

    Object image

    M82, Atlas Image courtesy of 2MASS/UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF

    Object image source

    Atlas Image courtesy of 2MASS/UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF
    Permission
    Public domain

    In the area of Ursa Major near the Big Dipper are two remarkable galaxies, both of which are too far away to view without a telescope. M81 is a classic spiral galaxy we see almost face-on, about the same size as the Milky Way, beautiful in its graceful repose. In contrast, M82, seen edge-on, may have experienced a titanic explosion. No one knows for sure, but M81 and M82 are wrapped in a common envelope of dust. Perhaps the passing of M81, which is almost ten times larger, has left the smaller M82 disrupted in its wake.

  • Big Dipper

    Asterism Visual Appearance

    The Big Dipper is one of the most easily recognizable groups of stars in the sky. It is referred to as circumpolar because, for most northern observers, it never completely sets below the horizon, but is visible in northern skies year-round.

    The Big and Little Dippers pour into each other, just as the Big Bear and the Little Bear ceaselessly turn around and around the northern sky. The Guard stars of the Little Dipper protect Polaris from the Great Bear, just in case he might try to catch the North Star for himself.

    Three stars make up the Big Dipper’s handle, and four stars make its bowl. If you can find the Big Dipper in the sky, you have a skymark to orient yourself both on the Earth and in the Heavens. The two stars that form the pouring side of the bowl point to Polaris, the north star. Polaris is a rather faint star about five times farther away than the distance between the pointers themselves, and marks the tip of the handle of the Little Dipper.

    Use the Big Dipper to find your way around the night sky.

    Asterism Skylore

    What Americans know as the Big Dipper has many names, being variously called the "Drinking Gourd" (America), "Plough" (Britain), "Wagon" (Europe), among many other names.

    In Middle Earth, the Big Dipper (or possible Ursa Major) was known as Valacirca (the Sickle of the Valar), and Cerch im(b)elain (Seven Butterflies). (Rachel Folmar)