The stars of Ursa Major, the Big Bear, are familiar to almost everyone, so they're a good place to start when you're learning about the sky. Part of the Bear is the immediately recognizable Big Dipper, which sits low in the northern sky in our early evening skies right now. The Bear is made up of stars that hang down and to the right of the dipper, but you'll need those mythic dark, rural skies to see them.
Late summer is the only time to see the bear rightside up in the early evening.
Unfortunately, when we see it that way, the bear's legs and paws are below the horizon. Not all stories identify the stars with a bear. The ancient Arabs, who were the most systematic sky watchers of the ancient world, saw the stars that mark the head of the Bear as a fleet- footed gazelle trying to escape from nearby Leo, the Lion. Gazelles don't run so much as leap from place to place, and the marks of the animal's jumps are still present in the sky as stars. Three pairs of stars represent the places where the gazelle dug its back feet into the sky to jump away from the pursuing lion.