Ursa Major as a celestial reference point for navigation. It is also referred to as the "Wain". One of the few star groups mentioned in the Bible (Job 9:9; 38:32; – Orion and the Pleiades being others), Ursa Major was also pictured as a bear by the Jewish peoples. ("The Bear" was translated as "Arcturus" in the Vulgate and it persisted in the KJV.) In the Finnish language, the asterism is sometimes called with its old Finnish name, Otava. The meaning of the name has been almost forgotten in Modern Finnish; it means a salmon weir. Ancient Finns believed the bear ("Ursus
Ursa Major Moving Group Ursa Major Moving Group The Ursa Major Moving Group, also known as Collinder 285 and the Ursa Major association, is a nearby stellar moving group – a set of stars with common velocities in space and thought to have a common origin in space and time. In the case of the Ursa Major group, all the stars formed about 300 million years ago. Its core is located roughly 80 light years away. It is rich in bright stars including most of the stars of the Big Dipper. All stars in the Ursa Major Moving Group are moving in roughly the