Bear Constellations

Since an exciting astronomical discovery has just been made, I decided to blog about bear constellations today.

First of all, there’s Ursa Major—the Great Bear.  Personally I think they should have called this the “Big Bear” since a certain other bear (ahem!) is an actual Great Bear. But it was named in ancient times before my celebrity was known, so I guess we’ll go with it.

There are two interesting things about Ursa Major. One, it contains the Big Dipper, the scoop of it looks like the bear is wearing a shawl on his back. The other more interesting fact concerns the small star Alcor near the bear’s head. I learned from my excellent book on astronomy written by H.A. Rey that long ago, before there were eye charts and optometrists, this star served as an eye test. If you could see it, your vision was considered normal. So if you want a cheap way to check if you need glasses, check out Alcor.

Next we have Ursa Minor or the Little Dipper. This bear is so minor he’s literally invisible. I can definitely see a “little dipper” spoon here but not a bear. The ancient astronomer who named this one must have been in the Mead wine.

Now we come to the most exciting part of my blog. A new constellation was recently discovered by the famed astronomer Van Dort, Ursa Ego Inflateus. It’s a genuine “little bear” constellation and one of the most handsome constellation figures if you ask me.

This is one constellation you’ll definitely want to look for in the skies. And you might recognize some of the star names of this one.