Ursa Major is the best known of the constellation and it appears in every reference known. Ursa Major, the Great Bear, is visible in the Northern Hemisphere all year long. Calisto was changed to a bear because of Zeus's jealousy and transferred her to the sky. This is improbable, as the constellation was already well established before this time. The drawings all show a bear with a long tail, again not likely correct since bears …
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…Civil War. There were songs spread among the slave population which included references to the "Drinking Gourd." The songs said to follow it to get to a better life. This veiled message for the slaves to flee northward was passed along in the form of songs since a large fraction of the slave population was illiterate. Check out the Ursa Major page which is part of the Texas Astronomical Society's Constellation of the Month Series