The Big Dipper

  True to its name The Big Dipper, was visible bright and nice yesterday. The very first constellation I believe that almost all of us know.

  I saw this first as a 7 year old child while I was lying in the terrace during one of our relaxed weekend terrace night camp with my mom. I pointed it out as a question mark to her and my brother followed me saying it is a spoon. My mom said it is called as The Ursa Major constellation in english and as Saptarishi in Hinduism. My mom usually gives a brief introduction and never explains unless we keep questioning about it to avoid trouble. After all she had two curious minds that would turn to her immediately as a walking encyclopedia. 

  So I remember asking her " Rishi na munivar poi okandrukara star la?"😁(is a sage sitting in the star?) She said find it out yourself, I will give you a book about it. My brother reserved it first and got it promptly too :-).....so to cut the story short, thats when my star gazing started but never questioned or found new data as a school kid, I just liked relaxing and looking at stars. I got used to identifying Big dipper and Orion alone, thanks to our school science textbook.

  Now to detail about The Saptarishis, meaning ‘seven sages’, are the seven rishis who are extolled in Hindu mythology. Due to their yogic powers and powers of penance, they are said to have attained semi immortal status— they have an extremely long life span.

Mapping the rishi names with the seven stars we have :

Marichi -Alkaid

Vashishta - Mizar

Angirasa -Alioth

Atri -Megrez

Pulasthya - Phecda

Pulaha - Merak

Krathu - Dubhe

They all revolve around the pole star, Dhruv.

  Two of its stars, named Dubhe and Merak (α Ursae Majoris and β Ursae Majoris), can be used as the navigational pointer towards the place of the current northern pole star, Polaris in Ursa Minor.

The information on this constellation in vast. Have fun exploring!