Editing Ursa Major (section)

==Graphic visualisation==
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In European star charts, the constellation was visualized with the 'square' of the Big Dipper forming the bear's body and the chain of stars forming the Dipper's "handle" as a long tail. However, bears do not have long tails, and Jewish astronomers considered Alioth, Mizar, and Alkaid instead to be three cubs following their mother, while the Native Americans saw them as three hunters.

[[File:Polarbear spitzbergen 1.jpg|thumb|right|H. A. Rey's alternative asterism for Ursa Major can be said to give it the longer head and neck of a polar bear, as seen in this photo, from the ''left'' side.]]
Noted children's book author [[H. A. Rey]], in his 1952 book ''[[The Stars: A New Way to See Them]],'' ({{ISBN|0-395-24830-2}}) had a different [[Asterism (astronomy)|asterism]] in mind for Ursa Major, that instead had the "bear" image of the constellation oriented with Alkaid as the tip of the bear's nose, and the "handle" of the Big Dipper part of the constellation forming the outline of the top of the bear's head and neck, rearwards to the shoulder, potentially giving it the longer head and neck of a [[polar bear]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://gophineas.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/rey_ursa_major.jpg|title=Archived representation of H.A. Rey's asterism for Ursa Major|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407074342/http://gophineas.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/rey_ursa_major.jpg|archive-date=2014-04-07}}</ref>

<gallery>
File:Sidney Hall - Urania's Mirror - Ursa Major.jpg|Ursa Major as depicted in [[Urania's Mirror]], a set of constellation cards published in London c.1825
File:Ursa Major constellation Hevelius.jpg|[[Johannes Hevelius]] drew Ursa Major as if being viewed from outside the celestial sphere.
File:Starry Night Over the Rhone.jpg|''[[Starry Night Over the Rhone]]'' by [[Vincent van Gogh]] (1888)
File:Flag of Alaska.svg|[[Polaris]] and the Big Dipper on the flag of [[Alaska]]
</gallery>

Ursa Major is also pictured as the [[Starry Plough (flag)|Starry Plough]], the Irish flag of Labour, adopted by [[James Connolly]]'s [[Irish Citizen Army]] in 1916, which shows the constellation on a blue background; on the state flag of [[Alaska]]; and on the [[House of Bernadotte]]'s variation of the [[coat of arms of Sweden]]. The seven stars on a red background of the [[flag of the Community of Madrid]], Spain, may be the stars of the Plough asterism (or of Ursa Minor). The same can be said of the seven stars pictured in the bordure azure of the [[coat of arms of Madrid]], capital of that country.