Without a doubt, the Big Dipper is the easiest star pattern to see in our Butler night skies, even though it's not an official constellation but rather the rear end and the tail of the constellation Ursa Major, otherwise known as the Big Bear.

After evening twilight this time of year, the Big Dipper is perched upside down in the high northern sky.

Ursa Major is one of the largest constellations in our night skies. The four stars that outline the pot of the Dipper make up the hind end of the Big Bear, and the handle is the stretched-out tail of the Big Bear.

How its tail got stretched out is a big part of one of the stories about Ursa Major I'll get to in a bit.

Ursa Major's head is made up of three dimmer stars that form a skinny triangle just to the left of the pot of the up Big Dipper. These stars aren't as bright as the seven stars of Big Dipper, but you should be able to spot them unless you have to put up with heavy pollution.

Above the head and the rear end of the Bear are his front and hind legs. The front and back paws are marked by pairs of two stars very close to each other.

The stars that make up the Little Dipper are the same ones that make up the Ursa Minor, the Little Bear, also with a stretched tail.

Polaris, otherwise known as the North Star, is the brightest star at the end of the Bear's tail, Little Dipper's handle. It's certainly not the brightest star in the night sky but a pivotal star. I call it the "lynchpin" of the heavens! Polaris marks the North celestial pole that shines directly above the Earth's terrestrial North Pole.

As the Earth rotates on its axis every 24 hours, we see a reflection of that rotation as all the stars in our celestial dome circle Polaris. It's as if the celestial bears are constantly circling their den!

Through the history of this column, I've shared with you the mythology stories about how the Big and Little Bear wound up in the night sky with stretched-out tails.

Zeus, the king of the gods in Greek mythology, fell in love with Callisto, a widow who lost her husband in a war. It would have been fine, but the problem was that Zeus was married and his wife Hera, also the queen of the gods, found out about it.

She caught Zeus and Callisto together and immediately changed Callisto into a bear who ran off to live life in the forest.

What made this a real tragedy is that Arcus, Callisto's only child, lost his mother. He didn't know what had happened to his mom; all he knew was that his mom had disappeared. Arcus lived with relatives and grew into a fine young man who fancied hunting, and wouldn't you know he loved hunting bears.

Sure enough, one day from his perch on Mount Olympus, Zeus spotted Arcus aiming an arrow at this big mama bear. Thinking there was a chance that this bear was actually Callisto, Zeus tore down to the scene with lightning speed. The bear was indeed Callisto!

Zeus tried in vain to convince Arcus not to shoot his mother, but the young man thought Zeus was nuts. He pushed back on Zeus, and just before the arrow flew from Arcus' bow, Zeus did the only thing he could do and turned Arcus into a little bear.

Once Arcus became a bear, he recognized his mom and they gave each other huge bear hugs.

Paranoid that Hera would catch him with the bears and pulverize him, Zeus grabbed both bears by their tails and flung them into the night sky, significantly stretching their tails. I call this the story "the tale of the tails"!

There are other stories about the stars we call the Big Bear, but in most of them, the Big Dipper is all there is to the Big Bear. One of my favorites comes from the Zunis, a Native American tribe in western New Mexico, a land I've come to love.

They see our Big Dipper as the great heavenly Bear that patrols the night skies against the frozen gods of the north. In winter, though, the Bear heads partially set below the horizon at that latitude, and the cold gods are then free to have their way, blowing in cold air, snowstorms and ice.

By spring, the Bear reappears in the evening sky, the cold gods quickly retreat northward, and the land becomes warm and sunny again.

Another piece of Ursa Major lore comes from the Basque region of Spain, but in this case, the Big Dipper isn't a bear at all or even part of a bear.

The story goes like this. Two thieves broke into a farmer's barn and stole a pair of oxen. The extremely upset farmer dispatched his housekeeper and a servant to go after the thieves. He also sent his errant bulldog, who was supposed to be responsible for security.

After a few hours, the highly irritated and impatient farmer joins the chase. This whole scene is portrayed every night. The two oxen are depicted by the stars on the outside edge of the pot, opposite the handle. The two other pot stars are the two thieves. The stars in the Dipper's handle are the servant, followed by the housekeeper and the furious farmer.

What about the dog? The pooch is a faint star you can barely see right next to the housekeeper star in the middle of the handle.

Incidentally, we know the brighter housekeeper star as Mizar and the faint watchdog star as Alcor. See if you can spot the little doggie!

Celestial Happening coming up: Next Saturday night, April 22, the Lyrids meteor is peaking. Especially after midnight on Sunday, April 23, you may see 15 to 20 meteors an hour, and the best viewing will be in the dark countryside.

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