Last week I attempted to explain the tricks for finding Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the Big Bear and the Little Bear.

What complicates things a bit is that the Little Bear and the famous Little Dipper are one and the same pattern of stars. The Big Dipper only makes up the rear end and tail of the Big Bear, but is the brightest part of the beast. Both bears are prominent in the northwestern Butler sky.

The Greek and Roman mythology story of how the bears got into the sky is not the only version of how that happened.

I know of at least a dozen other stories about Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. This one is my favorite, though, and many other folks feel the same way. It involves a beautiful young woman named Callisto and her son Arcus.

I have to warn mythology purists out there that I take poetic license with these stories. I like to bring them up to date a bit. I feel justified doing this because really, is there such a thing as the “correct” mythology?

Callisto was a beautiful young woman in her late 20s who tragically became a widow and single mom when her husband was killed in a war.

Arcus was her wonderful 10-year-old son, who really helped out his mom around the house and made life for Callisto a little easier.

Callisto worked really hard being a single mom and fortunately she had a really good job, but a mentally exhausting one. It was a good thing that Arcus was so good about helping around the house. He even fixed supper for his mom several times a week.

One of the things Callisto really, really looked forward to every Saturday morning after a long week of work was to finally get a chance to relax on a bench down on the shore of a small pond at a nearby park. Callisto absolutely loved to feed bread to the ducks. It was great therapy.

One sunny Saturday morning she was sitting on her favorite park bench making the duckies even fatter when Zeus happened to stroll by. Zeus, the king of the gods of Mount Olympus, was quite a hunk and quite a ladies man.

Zeus was struck broadside by Callisto's natural beauty and slid onto the park bench next to her. Callisto was greatly taken aback by Zeus. It's not every day you sit next to the king of the gods.

Zeus gave her that million dollar smile of his and calmed Callisto down. He asked if he could help her feed the ducks. Callisto obliged and soon they were laughing and looking lovingly in each other eyes.

After a little time passed Zeus slid closer to his new catch. His arm went around her shoulder and he knew how to say all the right things. He was quite the operator.

He then talked her into a cup of coffee at a local bistro and sweet-talked her some more. A few days later they went to the movies and then they made plans to visit an amusement park that coming Saturday.

All of this would have been just fine but Zeus was already engaged to marry the goddess Hera. And one thing you never do is tick off Hera. She was furious when she found out about Zeus's latest love adventure. After all, she already had the flowers ordered for her wedding day and had the VFW hall reserved for the reception.

Through her many spies Hera found out about Zeus's plans to visit the amusement park with his new girlfriend that coming Saturday and decided to give him a huge surprise.

Hera headed to the park very early that Saturday morning and hid in the bushes right next to the entrance of the giant roller-coaster. Later that morning Zeus and Callisto came along, arm in arm. When they got close enough, Hera jumped out of the bushes, held up her magic finger, pointed it at Callisto, and turned her into a big bear.

This caused quite a commotion with security. She was chased all around the park but managed to find a hole in the fence and escape into some nearby woods to live the life of a bear. Hera then dragged Zeus away by his ear.

Tragically this left Arcus without a mother as well as a father. He didn't know what happened to his mother, other than the fact that she just disappeared. Life goes on, though, and Arcus moved in with relatives and grew up to become, of all things, a professional game hunter.

One day Arcus was at the edge of the woods with his bow and arrow. The bear stakeout went on all day. Finally, in the early evening, a giant female bear sauntered her way into the clearing.

Of course you know who that bear really is, or we wouldn't have much of story here. Arcus had no idea that the bear he wanted to shoot was actually his mom. Talk about a Greek tragedy.

As luck would have it, Zeus was taking a stroll through the woods at that same time and ran into this scene.

He recognized that bear as Callisto from that ugly Saturday morning years earlier and also recognized Arcus as a grown man. He saw what was about to happen and he had to stop it.

Zeus tried to convince Arcus that the bear was really his transformed mother. Arcus had a hard time swallowing that and re-aimed the arrow at his mom.

As much of scoundrel as he was, Zeus couldn't let this happen, so out of desperation, just before the arrow flew, the king of the gods took his magic finger, pointed it at Arcus and turned him into a little bear. Once that happened, Arcus recognized his mother and they gave each other bear hugs.

While all this was going on, Hera was watching from Mount Olympus through high-powered binoculars. She was still pretty ticked off about Zeus's philandering.

She charged to the scene and Zeus saw her coming with fire in her eyes. He figured that she was so ticked off that she was probably going to kill him and the bears, so he decided he'd better diffuse the situation a bit and get rid of his four-legged friends.

So Zeus reached down and grabbed both bears by the tail and with all his godly strength, swung them around by their tails faster and faster. With everything he had he threw the bears toward the northern sky by their tails, where to this day and night they're safe from Hera's temper.

So why are the tails of the Big and Little Bear so long as you gaze upon them tonight?

Hey, your tail would be stretched out like that too if someone used it to throw you into the sky.

I hope you enjoyed this tale of the tails as much as I love telling it.

Celestial huggings this week

Early this Thursday evening in the low southeastern sky the full moon will be almost “touching” the planet Saturn, just to the upper left of the ringed wonder of our solar system. Don't miss it.

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is also the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and at adventurepublications.net. Contact Mike Lynch at mikewlynch@comcast.net.