Generalities: it is the smallest constellation after the Southern Cross  and Little Horse. It is  poor of bright stars, but it has a form that clearly characterizes it. Its position is in the northern sky, not very far from the celestial equator. It transits at midnight in August.

Origins and mythology: even if this constellationis small, it belongs to the original ones defined by the ancients. There are different interpretations of its bonds with the mythology. According to a version it represents an arrow cast by Hercules to free chained Prometheus. According to another version it represents the arrow used by Apollo against the Ciclopis , to punish them to have forged  the lightning that Zeus used to kill Esculapio, the child of Apollo himself. A further tradition identifies this constellation with the arc used by Cupid.

Stars: it is a constellation containing only two stars under  magnitude 4. The brightest star  has orange-red color, magnitude 3.47 and is 165 light-years far .

Table of stars brighter than magnitude 3.5
 

Star	Proper name	Magnitude	Spectrum	Colour	Distance (light-years)	Notes
Gamma		3.47	G0	yellow	166

Other objects: it contains the globular cluster M71

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