ursa major

[quimby44]

hi there you star gazers as i class myself as a newbie with a small 76 x700 telescope i was wondering if anybody got any pictures of the 7 stars stars in ursa major so i know what i will be looking for i know the names but dont know what there like to look at untill i go out and look at them  i am using a 76 x 700 zennox with a H20 lens with a 1.5x erecting lens cheers and look forward to all your comments thanks stephen

[jambouk]

I posted one recently on my society's timeline:

https://www.facebook.com/nas.org.uk/posts/445337808950484:0

James

[D4N]

Ursa Major is huge and you will only see a tiny part of it in your scope.

It looks like a saucepan

I would suggest some planetarium software, Stellarium and Cartes Du Ciel are both free and very good.

If you have a smartphone Skysafari is excellent.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[ronin]

Ursa Major is The Great Bear, the 7 you are talking of is, I assume, The Plough which is just a small part of Ursa Major, technical term is "an asterism".

I think an asterism is either a sub part of a constellation or a made up one that is not a recognised constellation.

So the plough is an asterism of Ursa Major and the pointers are an asterism of the plough.

The summer triangle (Vega, Deneb and Altair) is another asterism, but not a subpart of a bigger constellation, it is a made up "constellation".

The middle star in the handle of the plough is Mizer+Alcor a well know easy to seperate double.

Two good eyes will seperate them, but binoculars are easier.

[Astro Imp]

Stellarium has already been mentioned, get it here:- http://www.stellarium.org/

This is a great piece of software, you can spend/waste hours with it and best of all it's free.

[Calculon]

Another vote for Stellarium. Little bit fiddly at first but once you have it sussed it's outstanding.

[nigelbeaumont]

Stellarium is brilliant on an Android phone for identifying stars and constellations in the field

[Geordie mc]

Stellarium app also available for iOS devices. Also the book "Turn left at Orion" is a great intro to the night sky and finding your way around.