Ursa Major has been known by many civilisations for centuries. In Greek legends Ursa Major is seen as the mortal Callisto, who had an affair with Zeus. When Hera found that Callisto gave birth to Zeus` child, Hera full of rage, turned Callisto into a bear and placed her in the sky so that no one would forget Callisto`s unforgivable sin.

Ursa Major has many wonderful objects worth getting your telescopes out for.

The first object we will start with is M81 a spiral galaxy situated to the top right. It is a 7th magnitude galaxy that can be seen as a faint blur in binoculars. In 6 inch telescopes and bigger the splendor of this galaxy starts to become apparent. It is thought that the Milky Way could look somewhat like this seen from the outside.

Next we have M82 a thin galaxy just north of M81. It can be seen in binoculars and in a 4 inch telescope as an elongated blur. It is not known what type of galaxy this is due to the viewing angle.

Now onto M97, an 11th magnitude Planetary Nebula known as the Owl Nebula due to its owl appearance. It is located just next to beta Ursa Majoris alongside the galaxy M108. It requires a 6 inch telescope and upwards to see any detail but it can be seen with as small as a 3 inch telescope.

Finally we have M101 a spiral galaxy that is almost completely face on to us. It is located on the far left at the border with Bootes. It is best viewed with long exposure photography to bring out the detail of the arms, but it can be seen with binoculars.

There are some other galaxies dotted about but are not as visually enticing as those described.