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 .


Go back to constellations index
 

Go back to Home Page