Big Dipper: Four Stars in the Bowl, Three in the Handle

Last updated: November 2, 2026.

The Big Dipper is one of the most recognizable and easiest-to-find patterns in the night sky. It includes seven bright stars in the constellation Ursa Major: four form the bowl, and three form the handle.

Ursa Major, also known as the Great Bear, is a large constellation with more stars than the Big Dipper.

However, the stars that make up the bear’s head, torso, legs, and feet are not as easy to see as the seven stars that make up the hindquarters/flank and tail, which form the Big Dipper.

The Big Dipper is not a formal constellation but an asterism, a shape or pattern of stars that are often part of a constellation.

A photo of the Big Dipper asterism in the northern hemisphere sky. Trevor Jones.

Fast Facts

Is the Big Dipper a Constellation? The Big Dipper is not a constellation; it is actually an asterism, a prominent grouping of stars that forms a star pattern. It is one of many famous asterisms in the night sky, including ‘Orion’s Belt’ and the ‘Summer Triangle’.
What Constellation is the Big Dipper Part Of? The Big Dipper is part of a much larger constellation known as Ursa Major, the third largest of the modern 88 constellations.
Where is the Little Dipper? The Little Dipper is in the constellation Ursa Minor, close to the North Star (Polaris). Use the two stars in the Big Dipper bowl to draw an imaginary line toward Polaris, which is the end of the Little Dipper handle.
How did the Big Dipper get its Name? The Big Dipper gets its name from its resemblance to a pan or measuring cup with a bent handle. The Big Dipper has many different names, including the Wagon and the Plow.
How Many Stars are there in the Big Dipper? The Big Dipper has 7 stars. The stars are Dubhe, Merak, Phecda, Megrez, Alioth, Mizar, and Alkaid.

The 7 Stars of the Big Dipper

Four stars form the Big Dipper’s bowl, and three form its curved handle. Together, they make an asterism within the constellation Ursa Major.

Star	Location	What to Look For
Dubhe	Bowl	One of the two pointer stars used to find Polaris.
Merak	Bowl	The other pointer star. Follow a line from Merak through Dubhe toward Polaris.
Phecda	Bowl	Marks the bowl’s inner corner, opposite Dubhe.
Megrez	Bowl	Connects the bowl to the handle. The faintest of the seven stars.
Alioth	Handle	The handle star nearest the bowl and the brightest in the Big Dipper.
Mizar	Handle	Marks the handle’s bend. Look closely for nearby Alcor.
Alkaid	Handle	The star at the tip of the handle.

Spot an extra star? Alcor sits beside Mizar, but it is not counted among the seven main stars of the Big Dipper.

The Bowl

Dubhe (Alpha Ursae Majoris) is the second brightest star in the asterism and forms the upper outer portion of the bowl. It is an orange giant star with a visual magnitude of 1.79 and is approximately 123 light-years in distance.

Merak (Beta Ursae Majoris) forms the bottom outer portion of the bowl, with a mass three times that of the Sun. It is a white subgiant star with an apparent magnitude of 2.37 and is 79 light-years distant.

Phecda (Gamma Ursae Majoris) forms the bottom inner portion of the bowl. It is a main-sequence dwarf star with an apparent magnitude of 2.4 and lies 83.2 light-years distant.

Megrez (Delta Ursae Majoris) is the dimmest star in the asterism and forms the upper inner portion of the bowl, connecting to the first star in the handle. It is a main-sequence star and lies 80.5 light-years away.

The Handle

Alioth (Epsilon Ursae Majoris) is the brightest of the seven stars in the asterism and is the start of the handle. It has a visual magnitude of 1.77 and is 82.6 light-years away.

Mizar (Zeta Ursae Majoris) is a multiple-star system with two binary stars and is located in the middle of the handle. It has an apparent magnitude of 2.23 and is 83 light-years away.

Alkaid (Eta Ursae Majoris) is a young blue main-sequence star and is the third brightest in the Ursa Major constellation. It forms the end of the handle with an apparent magnitude of 1.86 and is roughly 104 light-years distant.

What Does the Big Dipper Look Like?

The Big Dipper looks like a saucepan or ladle drawn across the sky. Its seven stars form a simple outline: four stars make a bowl, while three more create a curved handle. This familiar shape makes it a great starting point for learning your way around the night sky.

If you have spotted a “saucepan-shaped constellation,” you have probably found the Big Dipper.

The bowl resembles an uneven rectangle. Dubhe, Merak, Phecda, and Megrez mark its four corners. Megrez, where the bowl meets the handle, is the faintest of the seven stars, so it can be harder to notice through light pollution or haze.

The Big Dipper in October from my backyard (looking north).

The handle extends outward from Megrez through Alioth and Mizar to Alkaid at the tip. Rather than forming a perfectly straight line, these three handle stars trace a gentle curve. Look carefully beside Mizar, the middle handle star, and you may also spot its faint companion, Alcor.

Do not expect the saucepan to sit upright every time you look. Depending on your location, the season, and the hour, the Big Dipper can appear tilted, standing on its handle, or upside down. The spacing between its stars stays familiar even as the whole pattern changes orientation.

You do not need a telescope to recognize the Big Dipper. Your eyes give you the wide view needed to see the entire shape. Once you identify the bowl, find its two outer stars, Merak and Dubhe. These “pointer stars” provide a useful next step: follow their line from Merak through Dubhe to locate Polaris, the North Star, in the northern sky.

How to Find the Big Dipper

Ursa Major, and therefore the Big Dipper, is visible at latitudes between +90 and -30 degrees on most clear nights in the Northern Hemisphere.

Both the Big Dipper and Little Dipper are circumpolar, meaning they rotate counterclockwise around the North Star as the Earth spins and never dip below the horizon at night for many northern-hemisphere observers.

The Big Dipper is a larger, brighter star pattern in Ursa Major, while the Little Dipper is a smaller, fainter pattern in Ursa Minor with Polaris, the North Star, at the tip of its handle.

There is an old saying, ‘spring up and fall down,’ that refers to the Big Dipper’s position in the sky during the seasons. In spring and summer, the asterism is at its highest in the sky, while in fall and winter, it is closer to the horizon.

Look for a dot-to-dot pattern in the shape of a kitchen ladle. If you locate the Big Dipper, then you can easily locate the Little Dipper and the North Star.

Video explaining how to find the Big Dipper. (wikiHow on YouTube).

Big Dipper, the Guide

Since the Big Dipper is easy to find in the sky, it makes a good starting point for beginners to learn about the stars in the northern hemisphere. For this reason, it is also used as a guide to locate other stars in the sky and surrounding deep-sky objects.

For example, the best way to locate the Little Dipper (i.e., Ursa Minor) and the North Star (i.e., Polaris) is to use the Big Dipper.

The two outer stars of the bowl, Merak and Dubhe, point towards the end of the handle in the Little Dipper. An imaginary line between the two stars from the Big Dipper will extend towards Polaris.

Use the Big Dipper to find Polaris, the ‘North Star’

If your sky is dark enough, once you have found Polaris, you will also be able to see the rest of the Little Dipper. Its stars are relatively dim, so it is not as easy to observe from a light-polluted sky.

Why is the Big Dipper sometimes upside down?

The Big Dipper appears upside down at certain times of the year because of Earth’s rotation. The Big Dipper lies close to Polaris (The North Star) in the northern hemisphere night sky.

This is the point around which all of the other stars in the night sky appear to rotate as the Earth spins on its axis. We see the Big Dipper at different angles (including upside down) as it circles the North Star in the sky.

Deep-Sky Objects near the Big Dipper

The area surrounding the Big Dipper contains some wonderful deep-sky objects, including galaxies and a planetary nebula. Its bright stars make useful starting points for finding these targets, although most appear as faint patches of light through an amateur telescope.

The Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) lies near the handle of the Big Dipper. The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) is close to Alkaid, the star at the handle’s tip, but falls within the neighboring constellation Canes Venatici. Both are beautiful spiral galaxies whose structure becomes much easier to appreciate in photographs.

On the bowl side, Bode’s Galaxy (M81) and the Cigar Galaxy (M82) lie northwest of Dubhe. These two galaxies are close enough together in the sky to photograph in the same frame with many small telescope setups.

The M81 and M82 galaxies are not far from the star Dubhe in the Big Dipper.

Near Merak, another star in the bowl, you will find the Owl Nebula (M97) and the galaxy M108. Although they appear close together, these objects are at very different distances: the Owl Nebula is inside our Milky Way, while M108 lies far beyond it.

A dark, moonless sky makes these faint objects easier to observe and photograph. The galaxies are distant background objects, so being “near the Big Dipper” describes their position in our sky, not a physical connection to its stars.

Deep-sky targets around the Big Dipper include M81, M82, M101, M51, the Owl Nebula (M97), and M108. They span a wide area of sky, so plan separate images for individual targets or close pairs.

Use the Big Dipper to find other deep-sky objects

Astrophotography

To photograph the Big Dipper, all you need is a camera, a tripod, and a clear view of the northern sky. A moonless night and a location well away from city lights will help the stars stand out against a darker background.

A wide-angle lens lets you fit the entire bowl and handle into one picture. You can even try a smartphone with night mode, as long as you keep it steady throughout the exposure.

Star trails surrounding the North Star above my house (including stars in the Big Dipper). Seestar S50 Pro

With a DSLR or mirrorless camera, start with a 10–15 second exposure and a wide-angle lens. Focus carefully on a bright star, and use a shutter delay to avoid camera shake. Zoom in on your test image and shorten the exposure if the stars look stretched.

A properly aligned star tracker lets you take longer exposures while keeping the stars sharp. Taking several images and stacking them can also reduce noise and reveal fainter details.

For a closer look at the surrounding galaxies, use a telephoto lens or telescope with tracking. A smart telescope is another option for individual deep-sky targets, which will appear tiny in a wide-angle picture of the entire Big Dipper.

Origins and Associations

Many cultures share parallels between Ursa Major and the Big Dipper. Some Native Americans believe the bowl is actually the bear, and that the stars in the handle are warriors chasing it.

In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the Big Dipper is known as the Plough. It is thought to have been associated with an old Nordic constellation that was believed to represent a wagon or chariot.

It is seen as a ladle (China/Japan), a cleaver (northern England), a cart/wagon (Germany/Hungary), and a coffin (Saudi Arabia).

It was also associated with the Underground Railroad during the Civil War. Slaves referenced the asterism in a song called ‘Follow the Drinking Gourd, ’ which provided directions to follow the Big Dipper to the north and freedom.