What is the longitude of Ursa Major?

Answer 1

It does not have a longitude. Only things on Earth have longitude. The stars in Ursa Major are located in the sky by using declination and right ascension. The star in Ursa Major where the "handle" meets the "bowl" is Megrez. Its Right Ascension (RA) is 12 hours 15 minutes and 47.521 seconds. This is the measure that is "like" longitude. Its Declination is 56 degrees 59 minutes and 15.84 seconds. These are the celestial coordinates, and won't mean much to you without the aid of charts. Celestial coordinates for a given object at a given time will be the same for any observer anywhere on earth. Of course, not every object is visible to all observers at any time. But these celestial coordinates, given in right ascension (RA), corresponding to longitude on the earth's surface, and declination (Dec), corresponding to latitude on the earth's surface, will be the same whether the object specified can be seen by you or not.

RA is measured in units of time: hours, minutes and seconds, through 24 hours (starting with the 0 hour) and Dec is measured in degrees, minutes and seconds, from +90 (north) to -90 (south) degrees, with 0 degrees at the equator. This is like the earth's coordinate system blown up and "pasted" to the stars, but with the zero point fixed against the stars. The position of stars is "constant" figuring from this system, except that there is a slow and constant drift of these coordinates for reasons beyond this answer's scope (see First Point of Aries).

There is another completely different coordinate system that can be used by any observer no matter where they are on earth (altazimuth coordinates). Of course, the results you get will be unique to you, since this system is centered at your location. This system uses the observer's true horizon as zero degrees altitude and altitude goes up to 90 degrees (the point exactly above you, the zenith- not the point exactly above the pole). The equivalent of longitude is "azimuth", and this is measured along the observer's horizon clockwise, starting at exactly north (zero degrees).

Usually it would be the coordinates of a single star that would be useful, and not the coordinates of a constellation that is stretched out over a big chunk of sky.

Answer 2

The azimuth of Ursa Major is approximately zero because of it's closeness to the north pole. However a more accurate measurement cannot be determined without a location on the Earth's surface to use as a reference.

Answer 3

(5,28) (7,26) Stop

Start again at (5,27) (7,26) (8,23) (12,23) (12,25) (15,25) (16,23) (18,22) (19,21) (22,21)

You can connect (16,23) and (12,23) to see the Big Dipper (Ursa Major) completed.

The first number is going across. The second number is going down.

Answer 4

Ursa Major isn't a physical object. It's a specific region of the sky containing millions of stars, most of them in distant galaxies far too dim to see. Since it has no "surface" the question is meaningless (it's like asking what color F sharp is).

Answer 5

"Ursa Major" is a constellation ... a group of many stars that have no association

and no relationship to each other, except for the fact that one species on Earth

associates them when they're viewed in Earth's night-time sky. Every star in

Ursa Major is situated at a different distance from Earth.

However, there is a set of stars called the "Ursa Major Moving Group", that

contains most of the stars in the Big Dipper asterism (all of them except Dubhe

and Alkaid) as well as a few stars in other constellations. Distances to individual

stars in the group vary, but the center of the group is about 80 light years from

Earth. (The Sun is on the "edge" of the group, but is not part of it.) The stars in

the Ursa Major Moving Group are thought to be "related" in origin, as they're all

roughly the same age, have about the same metallicity, and are all headed in

approximately the same direction.

Answer 6

Any constellation is a group of stars that appear to form some kind of pattern,

but have no connection with each other. They all happen to be in roughly the

same direction from us, but they're all at different distances. So there's no

such thing as a constellation's distance from us.

Answer 7

Latitude and longitudes are used for location on earth . Ursa Minor is a group of stars having no latitude or longitude .

Answer 8

between 90 and -30