The Constellations
Ursa Major, the Great Bear
The Big Dipper, and the pole of the sky.
- Chart
- The constellation Ursa Major
- Astronomer
- After Bayer / Hevelius / Flamsteed
- Date
- engraved 16th–18th c.
- Held by
- The great celestial atlases · Linda Hall Library
Finish
Format
The full-resolution scan, color-managed to the source — yours to print, study, and explore.
Size
$29.00
The story
Within the Great Bear sits the most familiar star-pattern of the northern sky — the seven stars the English call the Plough and Americans the Big Dipper — whose two end stars point the way to Polaris and true north. The Bear was once the nymph Callisto, transformed by a jealous goddess and swung up into the heavens by her tail, which is why, the ancients laughed, bears in the sky have such long ones. The great signpost of the night.
See it on your wall
A window onto the heavens, in your home
Ursa Major, the Great Bear printed large and framed, hung in rooms like yours. Every edition ships ready to become the piece the room is built around.
About this reproduction
- A faithful reproduction of a public-domain chart held by The great celestial atlases · Linda Hall Library — the work is centuries out of copyright.
- Printed to order on EMA matte art paper, 200gsm. Framed pieces sit in a box frame under acrylic, with no mount (gold-ink editions on specialist press).
- Color-managed to the source scan; we correct nothing and invent nothing.
- Ships in 5–10 business days, rolled in a heavy-wall tube (framed pieces ship flat-packed).
- If it arrives less than perfect, we reprint or refund — your choice.
Why our charts cost more than a poster: we print from the highest-resolution scans in existence, at sizes where the engraving itself becomes visible — the gold figures, the tiny stars, the cartouches — on a matte sheet that shows every line without glare.
