Bears and Ursa Major Constellation - Chicago, IL
Posted by: Metro2
N 41° 55.298 W 087° 38.133
16T E 447300 N 4641270
"Ursa Major" is Latin for larger she-bear.
Waymark Code: WMV6RA
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 03/05/2017
Views: 1
Located at one of the entrances to the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, this sculpture, entitled "The Lesson" is by Darrell Davis and dated to 2005. It depicts 3 bears. One of the adult bears is in the act of catching a fish while a cub watches.
As for the constellation "Ursa Major", Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us:
"Ursa Major (...also known as the Great Bear) is a constellation in the northern celestial hemisphere. One of the 48 constellations listed by Ptolemy (second century AD), it remains one of the 88 modern constellations. It can be visible throughout the year in most of the northern hemisphere. Its name, Latin for "the greater (or larger) she-bear", stands as a reference to and in direct contrast with Ursa Minor, "the lesser she-bear", with which it is frequently associated in mythology and amateur astronomy. The constellation's most recognizable asterism, a group of seven relatively bright stars commonly known as the "Big Dipper", "the Wagon" or "the Plough" (among others), both mimics the shape of the lesser bear (the "Little Dipper") and is commonly used as a navigational pointer towards the current northern pole star, Polaris in Ursa Minor. The Big Dipper and the constellation as a whole have mythological significance in numerous world cultures, usually as a symbol of the north.
The third largest constellation in the sky, Ursa Major is home to many deep-sky objects including seven Messier objects, four other NGC objects and I Zwicky 18, which is potentially the youngest-known galaxy in the visible universe."