Official Kids Mag www.kidscoop.com © Vicki Whiting May 2023
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An ancient Greek legend tells the story of a beautiful woman named Callisto who loved
her son Arcas. One day the goddess queen, Hera, became angry with Callisto and turned
her into a bear. When Arcas went hunting he came upon a bear in the woods. It was his
mother, but she couldn't tell him. Arcas was about to kill the bear when the king of the
gods, Zeus, changed him into a bear too. Zeus lifted the bears by their tails and swung
them into the sky. This caused their tails to stretch and that is the reason the Great and
Little Bears have long tails.
A huge dot-to-dot game is right above your head and you
can play it on any cloudless night.
The North Star or Polaris is not the biggest or the
brightest star, but it is the most important. It stays in the
same spot and can be used to find other stars. Travelers
use it to find their directions when they don't have a
compass. The two stars at the tip of The Big Dipper's
bowl help you to find the North Star.
The Big Dipper
is part of the
constellation
The Great Bear
(Ursa Major).
My Stars!
Star Chart for the
Northern Sky
The
North
Star
The ancient Greeks contributed more than the Olympic Games to
the world. It was in Athens that people first invented democracy, a
government by the people, for the people. Ancient Greeks also
contributed greatly to modern astronomy.
For thousands of years, people have looked at the stars in the sky
and imagined shapes and patterns. The ancient Greeks saw that
some stars formed groups that reminded them of people or animals
or things like arrows and crowns. Today, we call groups of stars that
make up pictures constellations.
Look at the pictures
of the constellations
on this page. Find
them in the star map
you see here. Then,
on the next cloudless
night, look for them
in the sky.
Courtesy of
Northern Stars
Planetarium,
Fairfield, Maine.
Hercules
Swan
(Cygnus)
Dragon
(Draco)
Crown
(Corona Borealis)
Lyra
Cassiopeia
The Little Dipper or
The Little Bear
(Ursa Minor)
The Great Bear
(Ursa Major)
