How did the big dipper get its name?
Because it looks like a dipper (sorry). There’s also a legend about it. I don’t remeber from what culture it is from, but I’m pretty sure it’s some Spanish-speaking county/culture. There was a girl whose mother was very sick. It was time of drought, and there wasn’t a drop of water around. So the little girl grabbed a tin dipper/pan and went outside, looking for water. [This myth is set in a rural place.] After hours of searching, she found a small waterfall, a trickle of water barely coming through. The girl held the dipper in front of the trickle of water and waited until the dipper was full. Then, the girl walked back to her house, making sure no water spilled out. A thirsty-looking dog walked in front of her. The little girl smiled and gave the dog a small amount of water to drink. The dipper turned bronze, but the girl did not notice. A little boy came across her path and she gave him some water to drink. The dipper turned silver, but the girl did not notice When she got home, she
This name was adopted by British colonials in North America because of the resemblence in shape to a ladle ,or dipper. In England it was known as Charles’ Wain (=the wagon of Charlemagne). It forms the body and tail of Ursa Major, the big (female) bear. The two stars at the end of the bowl, the bear’s belly button and middle of her back, are Merak and Dubhe, the Pointers, which point up towards Polaris, the North Star, which is the brightest star in and the end of the handle of the Little Dipper, which is part of Ursa Minor. Five of the stars of the Big Dipper are members of a cluster of stars moving through space together, and presumably all formed together at the same time and place.
Its part of a larger constellation called Ursa Major, but the part we call the Big Dipper was named that because the stars that make up that part of the constellation look like a ladle or “dipper”. The “Big” is because there is a smaller version that is roughly the same shape in the constellation Ursa Minor (they call that ‘asterism’ or shape in the stars the Little Dipper).
