The Big Dipper is an asterism in the constellation Ursa Major (the Great Bear). One of the most familiar star shapes in the northern sky, it is a useful navigation tool. Asterisms are prominent ...

Summer is a good time to view the Big Dipper because it's high in the northern sky during the evening. The Big Dipper is not ...

Mizar, a star in the Big Dipper's handle, has a tiny companion. This star, Alcor, was known to the ancients. The pair was ...

Arcturus (at a magnitude of -0.05), one of the few stars mentioned by name in the Bible, is a giant, about 25 times the diameter of our sun and 36.7 light years away. Boötes is chasing the Bears with ...

While the Big Dipper is visible year round from many places, its orientation in the sky changes through the course of the year as Earth whirls around the Sun, and through individual nights too ...

Polaris, which lies roughly 430 light-years from Earth, marks the end of the Little Dipper’s handle. Alternatively, it’s the ...

The Big Dipper is not only one of the easiest-to-find ... for finding other stars and star groupings around the northern sky. This technique is called star-hopping, and it’s one of the most ...

Anyone who enjoys gazing at the night sky probably has a few favorite star patterns they like to look for: The Big Dipper, for example, or Orion’s belt. But those familiar shapes that many of us ...

This week on Star Watch you will be able to see multiple planets in the night sky and the big and little dipper constellations. Friday, June 28, at 11 PM you will be able to see 2 planets in the sky.

Even though winter is definitely on the way in November, the nighttime sky still has some summer constellations lingering in the western sky. The most obvious stars will be the Summer Triangle.