Skippy by Percy Crosby for February 22, 2021

Of the seven stars that make up the “Big Dipper”, only five are in what is known as the Ursa Major Moving Group. A “Moving Group” refers to a group of stars thought to have descended from a common stellar body…… ( in essence… a Nova ). These five stars ( including, but not limited to ), Mizar, Alioth, Megrez, Phecda & Mirak are a distance of an average 80 light years ( 24.5 parsecs ) from Earth.The other two stars, Alkaid & Dubhe are 104 & 123 light years ( 31.8 & 37.5 parsecs, respectively ).