Ursa Minor
- Cepheus
- Giraffe
- Dragon
The Little Bear ( Greek = Μικρή ' Αρκτος ( Mikri Arktos ) ) (Latin Ursa Minor - Minor actually bear or Smaller Bear) is a constellation of the northern sky. It is also called the Little Dipper.
Description
The Little Bear is similar to that known as the Big Dipper part of Ursa Major and is therefore also known as the Little Dipper. In contrast to the Big Dipper, the drawbar is bent upward.
The little bear is north of the equator throughout the year to see Europe and a few degrees of latitude and thus circumpolar.
Its main star Polaris, also called the North Polar Star, is currently pretty much near the celestial north pole, the northern extension of the Earth's axis. The entire sky appears to rotate around this star. Taking a line from Polaris to the horizon, this is pretty close to the north. One can easily find Polaris by extending an imaginary line through the rear two stars of the Great Bear ( Merak and Dubhe ) upwards. In about five times the distance of the two stars is Polaris.
Due to the precession of the earth the celestial north pole describes the period of about 25,700 years, a circular path in the sky around the Ekliptikpol. 2800 BC was Thuban, a star in the dragon, the Polar Star, and in 4000 it will Errai be a star in Cepheus.
History
In early Greece was seen in the constellation of the Hesperides, nymphs who guarded the apples, bestowed eternal youth. The apples were symbolized by the three pole star of today's Big Dipper.
One other interpretation by the star part of the constellation dragons were, and put dar. whose wings
Thales of Miletus is said to have first mentioned in 600 BC as a separate constellation in astronomy according to Greek tradition, the stars. Contemporary sources, however, are missing for this assumption. Maybe he took it from the Phoenicians, where the constellation of the Little Bear served as orientation, which is why it was known as " The Phoenicians " in ancient times.
The constellation or the Polarstern are referred to in English-speaking as Cynosure. On the origin of that name there are two versions:
- So it should have traded at the Little Bear in early Greek mythology by a dog that followed the Bootes. Aratus called the constellation Κυνόσουρα ( Kunosoura ), " dog's tail ". The name was later adopted as Cynosura into Latin.
- Another source has it that the Great and the Little Bear, the two nurses Helice and Cynosura represent the Zeus in Crete attracted large ( Aglaosthenes: "Tales of Naxos ").
The present name Little Bear goes back to the sagas surrounding the nymph Callisto and her son Arcas, which were transformed into bears.
In the Christian heaven Atlas of Julius Schiller this constellation was replaced by the Archangel Michael.
Mythology
In classical Greek mythology, the following is reported to the origin of the Little Bear:
The nymph Callisto was raped by Zeus. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son, whom she named Arcas. Hera, the jealous wife of Zeus, Callisto turned into a bear that had to move through the woods. Years later Arkas met in the hunt for his mother without realizing it. In order to prevent the murder of his mother, Zeus Arkas transformed also into a bear. He grabbed both bears by their tails and flung it into the sky - thus the supernatural long tails of the bears are explained. Kallisto we see as the Big Dipper, Arkas as the Little Bear.
Celestial objects
Stars
Kochab ( β Ursae Minoris ), the second brightest star in the Little Bear, is a 126 light-years distant, orange shining star. The name derives from the Arabic Kochab from: الكوكب al - Kaukab or al - Kokab means " star". Originally it was called الكوكب الشمالي al - Kaukab ash- schemali, "The Star of the North".
The γ white shining star Ursae Minoris is about 480 light years away. Its Arabic name فرقد Pherkad derived from Alifa al - farqadain and means " the darker of the two calves " ( with the lighter calf was the Kochab meant ).
Observable multiple stars
Polaris is a 430 light-years distant multiple star system, orbiting a common center of gravity with the three stars. The main star is a bright yellowish giant star whose brightness changes slightly over a period of four days. In a telescope, only 9.0 meters brighter companion star is visible in 18.3 seconds of arc distance. Another companion orbiting the system in 29.6 years, is so faint that it can only be detected spectroscopically.
Variable Stars
Messier and NGC objects
Fiction
The Greek name for Ursa Minor Cynosura ( Κυνόσουρα ) is the title of a novella love story of the Thuringian poet and kindergarten founder Ludwig Storch ( 1803-1881 ) from the Biedermeier period (1840 ).
The two " calf ", that is, and the star Kochab Pherkad are also referred to as the two Ferkadan. ( Cf: al- farqadain, the Arabic name for Pherkad ). In the Makamen the Arab writer Ibn Al -Hariri is Gadhimet Elebresch, king of Hira, too proud to drink with human partners, so he recognizes only the two Ferkadan as his drinking companions. In German-speaking countries, this was known by the writer and Orientalist Friedrich Rückert, who published in 1826 and 1837 paraphrase: " The transformations of the Ebu silk or Makamen of Hariri ." And today's readers know this, like so much else, of course, by Arno Schmidt, which can occur several times a person in his narrative work that may only initiate the Ferkadan.