The Big Dipper is so recognizable, it's been an old friend to most of us since childhood. Its shape is mutating and will appear different in just a few thousand years -- but it hasn't changed a bit since we were kids.
These nights, the Dipper is highest in the sky and hovers almost overhead in the north. The Big Dipper floats forlornly in a dark and desolate region of the sky, far from the Milky Way. Hence, the Dipper guides our eyes away from own galaxy and toward the emptiness of the rest of the universe.