Ancient Greeks 2500 years ago
Ancient Greeks 2500 years ago
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/33160706
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In what language does "bear" translate to "dipper?"
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In several languages that constellation is known as the "big bear". No idea about the reason for the split.
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I think modern society has taken to calling it mostly the dipper since there’s too much light pollution for most people to see the extra stars that turn it into a bear.
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Yes. Though, American society. Maybe other English speakers.
Dipper is one of the craziest most obscure choices of name, too, IMO.
Here's the whole thing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursa_Major
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The photo on Wikipedia
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and the one with the actual "bear" outlined. Its still a real stretch, imo.
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I actually think they just have that wrong. If you include the stars marked in red at the front as the head, and change the body shape to include the red ones at the back to make it bulkier, you get something much more obviously bear shaped.
The constelations were first passed from generation to generation orally, and at a time when you could actually see more than just the brightest stars, so the original ideas have been lost over time and we've received a much changed, and less sensible version of them, even after they started being recorded on paper.
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Ursa major IIRC, and there is also the Ursa minor ofc.
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In Italian we use both minor/major she-bear or big/small carriage. It definitely looks more like a carriage than a bear.
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the dipper is only part of the actual constellation, the dipper itself is instead an "asterism", which basically means constellation but less arbitrary and nonsensical.
an asterism is any pattern in the stars, while constellations are standardized and historical and generally only useful for categorizing sections of the sky for astronomers.
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15 comments