DRACO
The Dragon
(Dra)

Generalities: it is a wide sinuous constellation of the northern sky, which appears circumpolar from our latitudes , that is to say it is always above the horizon. It transits at midnight between May and June.
Origins and mythology: according to the mythology the Dragon is the one killed by Cadmo before founding the city of Thebes. According to another tradition it would be the dragon guarding the gold apples in the garden of the Esperidis.
Stars:
the Dragon is a long sinuous constellation, its tail starts between
the two Bears. It doesn't have any stars of the first magnitude but different
stars of moderate brightness. Three of them are under magnitude three.
According to their decreasing brightness they are: Etamin (m=2.23), Aldhibain
(m = 2.74) and Rastaban (m=2.79). Even if the star alpha, named Thuban,
is less bright (m=3.65), some millennia ago it was the polar star. In the
Dragon there are 12 stars under magnitude 4 altogether.
Table of stars brighter than magnitude
3.5
| Star | Proper name | Magnitude | Spectrum | Colour | Distance (light-years) | Notes |
| Gamma | Etamin | 2.23 | K5 | orange | 101 | |
| Eta | Aldhibain | 2.74 | G8 | orange | 82 | |
| Beta | Rastaban | 2.79 | G2 | yellow | 268 | |
| Delta | Tais | 3.07 | G9 | orange | 117 | |
| Zeta | Aldhibah | 3.17 | B6 | white-blue | 315 | |
| Iota | Edesich | 3.29 | K2 | orange | 156 |
Other objects: it contains an interesting planetary nebula, observable by amateur tools .