Who discovered Ursa Major and when?

Answer 1

Who discovered the Ursa Major?

The Ursa Major was known to astronomers before the medieval period,therefore the exact person is unknown.This is known as the ancient Indians called it "The Saptarishi"(Seven Saints,namely Kritu,Pulah,Pulatsya,Atri,Angira,Vashishtha,and Mareech)and believed that the sages had been grouped together.

Answer 2

Ancient people, tens of thousands of years ago, noticed that the stars of Ursa Major closely resembled a bear, especially since it behaved like a bear - in the winter (when bears hibernate) the bear is headed away from the horizon. In Springtime, when hungry bears wake up, the bear is headed down toward the horizon, to prowl and hunt. So, no one person "discovered" it. It has been spotted, seen and watched for countless generations.

Answer 3

No constellation was ever discovered by a man. The stars that are arbitrarily placed in one constellation or another were there long before homo sapiens evolved. The human brain is quite good at pattern forming, even from purely random items like the lunar craters that we see as "the man in the Moon". Different peoples at different times looked at the night sky, saw a pattern, and named it. The relation between the stars in a constellation and the thing it supposedly represents is often very tenous; this leads to a grouping of stars having several quite different names. Ursa major is a classic example. Apart from the great bear, which is just the translation of ursa major, it is widely known as the plough (or the saucepan!). Nobody knows who came up with these names, except possibly Arthur Ransome getting credit for the saucepan.