Jim Popp, age 11, of Wtenomnee Falls, Wisconsin, for his question:

How did the Big Dipper get its name?

In pioneer days, the homesteaders got their water from wells. As a rule, the well was near the kitchen door and the family used a rope to haul up the water in a big wooden bucket. Often, the best place to drink it was right there by the well. So a dipper was kept there    a cup with an extra long handle. Chances are, there was another dipper just like it in the cowshed. This one was used to scoop a drink from the milk bucket.

Those handy old dippers were shaped just like two bright starry constellations that appeared overhead every night of the year. It was natural to call them the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper. There they are still, each with a square of stars to outline the drinking cup and a string of stars to mark the curved handle, needed to dip the old dipper in and out. The two stars on the drinking, side of the Big Dipper point directly to Polaris, the North Star, which happens to be the last one on the handle of the Little Dipper.