Ursa Major 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. Noted children's book author H. A. Rey, in his 1952 book "The Stars: A New Way to See Them," () had a different 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
Ursa Major (album) down the album's progress. The working title of the album was "The Hideous Strength", after a similarly named C.S. Lewis book. According to Jenkins, the album's name was subsequently changed to "Ursa Major" because "...We’ve been hibernating and now we’ve awakened and we are hungry for spring and we want to feed and we want to thrive." Another album, "Ursa Minor" (B-Sides compilation), was scheduled to follow "Ursa Major" but the idea was later scrapped in favor of a new studio album. "Ursa Major"'s cover is derived from "Uranographia", a 17th-century drawing by Johannes Hevelius. The view is mirrored following