There’s more than one way to see the stars — or at least the patterns of stars. In western culture, for example, the stars of the Big Dipper and those around it form the great bear, Ursa Major. The dipper forms his body and tail, while three faint pairs of stars represent his feet. In ancient Arabia, though, those pairs of stars represented the leaps of a gazelle, and they’re named accordingly. The first pair is known as Alula Borealis and Alula Australis — the northern and southern halves of the first leap. The second pair is Tania Borealis and Australis — the second leap. And the third pair is known by the name of its brighter star, Talitha — the third leap. The stars in the three pairs are unrelated — they’re all at different distances from Earth, but they just happen to line up in such a way that they form close pairs. Perhaps the most impressive of all the “leaping” stars is Alula Borealis. It’s a red giant — a star that’s puffed up at the end of its life. It’s about 70 times wide
