Ursa Minor train, of light" (i.e. λύκος "wolf" vs. λύκ- "light"). Allen points to the Old Irish name of the constellation, "drag-blod" "fire trail", for comparison. Brown (1899) suggested a non-Greek origin of the name (a loan from an Assyrian "An‑nas-sur‑ra" "high-rising"). An alternative myth tells of two bears that saved Zeus from his murderous father Cronus by hiding him on Mount Ida. Later Zeus set them in the sky, but their tails grew long from being swung up into the sky by the god. Because Ursa Minor consists of seven stars, the Latin word for "north" ("i.e.", where Polaris points) is
Ursa Major latitudes. From southern temperate latitudes, the main asterism is invisible, but the southern parts of the constellation can still be viewed. Appearing in the northern sky, Ursa Major occupies a large area covering 1279.66 square degrees or 3.10% of the total sky, making it the third largest constellations in the night sky. Eugène Delporte in 1930, who set the official International Astronomical Union (IAU) constellation boundaries, formed a 28-sided irregular polygon, which according to the equatorial coordinate system, stretches between the right ascension coordinates of and and the declination coordinates of +28.30° and +73.14°. Ursa Major borders eight other constellations: