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Northern Dipper
The Big Dipper ( US, Canada) or the Plough ( UK, Ireland) is a large asterism consisting of seven bright stars of the constellation Ursa Major; six of them are of second magnitude and one, Megrez (δ), of third magnitude. Four define a "bowl" or "body" and three define a "handle" or "head". It is recognized as a distinct grouping in many cultures. The North Star (Polaris), the current northern pole star and the tip of the handle of the Little Dipper (Little Bear), can be located by extending an imaginary line through the front two stars of the asterism, Merak (β) and Dubhe (α). This makes it useful in celestial navigation. Names and places The constellation of ''Ursa Major'' (Latin: Greater Bear) has been seen as a bear, a wagon, or a ladle. The "bear" tradition is Indo-European (appearing in Greek, as well as in Vedic India), but apparently the name "bear" has parallels in Siberian or North American traditions. European astronomy The name "Bear" is Homeric, and appare ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ursa Major Constellation Detail Map
Ursa is a Latin word meaning bear. Derivatives of this word are Ursine (other), ursine or Ursini (other), Ursini. Ursa may also refer to: General * URSA Extracts (United States of America), a California cannabis concentrate company * Ursa (Finland), a Finnish astronomical association * Ursa (spider), ''Ursa'' (spider), a spider genus in the family Araneidae * Ursa Major, the Great Bear constellation * Ursa Minor, the Small Bear constellation * HMS Ursa, HMS ''Ursa'', the name of two ships of the Royal Navy Places * Ursa, Illinois, a village in the United States * Ursa, a village in Gârcov Commune, Olt County, Romania * Ursa Motoșeni, the former name of Motoșeni Commune, Bacău County, Romania People * Urša, feminine given name Fiction * Ursa (comics), a fictional villain in ''Superman'' media * Ursa, a fictional monster in the M. Knight Shymalan film ''After Earth'' * A fictional character in ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' * Ursa, Bear's girlfriend in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alpha Ursae Majoris
Alpha Ursae Majoris, Latinised from α Ursae Majoris, formally named Dubhe , is, despite being designated "α" (alpha), the second-brightest object in the northern constellation of Ursa Major. This prominent asterism is known as the Big Dipper, the Plough, and the Great Bear. Alpha Ursae Majoris is the northern of the 'pointers' (or 'guards'), the second being Beta Ursae Majoris, or 'Merak' – this pair of stars point towards Polaris, the North Star. Stellar system α Ursae Majoris is located at a distance of approximately 123 light years from the Sun, based on parallax measurements. It is a spectroscopic binary made up of the stars designated ''α Ursae Majoris A'' and ''α Ursae Majoris B''. The pair orbit at a separation of about 23 astronomical units (AU) with a period of 44.5 years and an eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.44. There is another spectroscopic binary at an angular separation of 7.1 arcminutes, forming a 7th magnitude pair showing an F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Callisto (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Callisto or Kallisto (; grc, Καλλιστώ ) was a nymph, or the daughter of King Lycaon; the myth varies in such details. She was believed to be one of the followers of Artemis ( Diana for the Romans) who attracted Zeus. Many versions of Callisto's story survive. According to some writers, Zeus transformed himself into the figure of Artemis to pursue Callisto, and she slept with him believing Zeus to be Artemis. She became pregnant and when this was eventually discovered, she was expelled from Artemis's group, after which a furious Hera, the wife of Zeus, transformed her into a bear, although in some versions Artemis is the one to give her an ursine form. Later, just as she was about to be killed by her son when he was hunting, she was set among the stars as Ursa Major ("the Great Bear") by Zeus. She was the bear-mother of the Arcadians, through her son Arcas by Zeus. The fourth Galilean moon of Jupiter and a main belt asteroid are named after Call ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the Roman Republic it became the dominant language in the Italian region and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire. Even after the fall of Western Rome, Latin remained the common language of international communication, science, scholarship and academia in Europe until well into the 18th century, when other regional vernaculars (including its own descendants, the Romance languages) supplanted it in common academic and political usage, and it eventually became a dead language in the modern linguistic definition. Latin is a highly inflected language, with three distinct genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), six or seven noun cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative, and vocative), five declensions, four verb conjuga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and contains 15,693 lines in its most widely accepted version, and was written in dactylic hexameter. Set towards the end of the Trojan War, a ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Mycenaean Greek states, the poem depicts significant events in the siege's final weeks. In particular, it depicts a fierce quarrel between King Agamemnon and a celebrated warrior, Achilles. It is a central part of the Epic Cycle. The ''Iliad'' is often regarded as the first substantial piece of European literature. The ''Iliad'', and the ''Odyssey'', were likely written down in Homeric Greek, a literary amalgam of Ionic Greek and other dialects, probably around the late 8th or early 7th century BC. Homer's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
