One of the sure signs that spring has arrived is the return of the Big Dipper to our early evening sky.

Look toward the northeastern sky around 9 p.m. to find the seven bright stars of the Big Dipper, propped up on its handle. The two stars marking the top end of the Dipper’s bowl are named Dubhe and Merak.

These are called “the pointer stars” because a line drawn through them and extended out of the top of the Dipper will lead you directly to our North Star, Polaris.

Completing the Dipper’s bowl are two more stars, named Phecda and Megrez. Megrez is the star positioned right where the handle of the Big Dipper joins the bowl. The remaining three stars form the bent handle of the Big Dipper — Alioth, Mizar, and Alkaid, bringing up the rear.

If you have good vision and the night is dark and clear, you can make out an eighth star in the Big Dipper, right beside Mizar, the star at the bend in the Dipper’s handle.

Although it is the faintest of the stars outlining the Big Dipper, it is no less famous than the brighter seven. Named Alcor, it has been known since antiquity as “the Rider” and its neighbor Mizar as “the Horse.”

In Great Britain, where our Big Dipper is known as “Charles’s Wain,” Mizar is considered the middle horse pulling the wain (wagon) and Alcor is popularly known as “Jack on the Middle Horse.” So, our rider has a name: Jack.

Mizar and Alcor together form one of the easiest and best-known naked-eye double stars in the heavens. Whether or not the two stars actually orbit around each other is still a matter of debate among astronomers. If they do, then their orbital period must be measured in hundreds of thousands of years because the two stars are so far apart.

In the year 1650, when astronomers first aimed their telescopes at the famed “Horse and Rider,” they were astonished to discover that the Horse itself appeared double. Almost any small telescope will reveal the twin stars of Mizar, called Mizar A and B.

Modern astronomers have used sophisticated techniques to discover that each of Mizar’s twin components is again double. This amazing quintuple star system is located about 80 light years from Earth.

My favorite story about the star Alcor comes from Viking mythology. To the Vikings, our constellation of Orion, the Hunter, was Orwandil, the Giant, and the bright blue star Rigel represented the giant’s foot.

Once, when Orwandil was crying like a big baby because his toe was frostbitten, the god Thor grew tired of his whining and snapped off the frozen toe. Yee-ouch! He then threw the toe into the northern sky where we can see it today shining right beside Mizar as our little star Alcor.

Professor Jimmy Westlake teaches astronomy and physics at Colorado Mountain College’s Alpine Campus. His “Celestial News” column appears weekly in the Steamboat Today newspaper. Check out Jimmy’s astrophotography website at http://www.jwestlake.com.