Ursa Minor The tradition of naming the northern constellations "bears" appears to be genuinely Greek, although Homer refers to just a single "bear". The original "bear" is thus Ursa Major, and Ursa Minor was admitted as second, or "Phoenician Bear" (Ursa Phoenicia, hence Φοινίκη, Phoenice) only later, according to Strabo (I.1.6, C3) due to a suggestion by Thales, who suggested it as a navigation aid to the Greeks, who had been navigating by Ursa Major. In classical antiquity, the celestial pole was somewhat closer to Beta Ursae Minoris than to Alpha Ursae Minoris, and the entire constellation was taken to indicate the
Ursa, Illinois versus $22,778 for females. The per capita income for the village was $16,600. About 8.3% of families and 10.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.3% of those under age 18 and 6.8% of those age 65 or over. Ursa, Illinois Ursa is a village in Adams County, Illinois, United States. The population was 626 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Quincy, IL–MO Micropolitan Statistical Area. Ursa is located at (40.074653, -91.370776). According to the 2010 census, Ursa has a total area of , all land. The first settlers came to Ursa in 1823.