Draco is a constellation in the far northern sky. Its name is Latin for dragon. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations today. The north pole of the ecliptic can be found in the constellation. Draco is circumpolar and can be seen all year from northern latitudes, as the constellation never sets from the nights sky. Draco is sometimes represented as the Titan son of Gaia, Typhon.

	Applicable Information
Visibility In Pacific Northwest	Always Visible
Best Times To View	July
Right Ascension	17h
Declination	+65°
Area	1083 square degrees
Main Stars	14
Brightest Object	γ Dra — Eltanin
Meteor showers	Draconids
Messier objects	1
Neighboring Constellations	Boötes, Hercules, Lyra, Cygnus, Cepheus, Ursa Minor, Camelopardalis, Ursa Major

History

Draco is one of the 48 constellations listed in Ptolemy’s Almagest which was adopted from the list by Eudoxus of Cnidus. 

A dragon in Greek mythology that may have inspired the constellation’s name is Ladon, the dragon who guarded the golden apples of the Hesperides.

In Greco-Roman legend, Draco was a dragon killed by the goddess Minerva and tossed into the sky upon his defeat. The dragon was one of the Gigantes, who battled the Olympic gods for ten years. As Minerva threw the dragon, it became twisted on itself and froze at the cold North Celestial Pole before it could right itself.

Traditional Arabic astronomy does not depict a dragon in modern-day Draco, which is called the Mother Camels. Rather than a dragon, two hyenas are seen attacking a baby camel, with the nomads who own the camels are camped nearby.

In some mythology, Draco had one hundred magnificent heads, guarded the golden apple tree, and was put in the sky as a constellation for protecting the apples with valor. The constellation has been subject to many more myths, but ones that are obscure.

Stars

There are three stars under magnitude 3 in Draco and Draco is home to several double and binary stars. https://www.space.com/16755-draco-constellation.html

Deep Sky Objects

One of deep-sky objects in Draco is the Cat’s Eye Nebula, otherwise known as NGC 6543, which is a planetary nebula approximately 3,000 light-years away that was discovered by English astronomer William Herschel in 1786. It is 9th magnitude and was named for its appearance in the Hubble Space Telescope, though it appears as a fuzzy blue-green disk in an amateur telescope. NGC 6543 has a very complex shape due to gravitational interactions between the components of the multiple star at its center, the progenitor of the nebula approximately 1,000 years ago.

There are several faint galaxies in Draco, one of which is the lenticular galaxy NGC 5866, which is sometimes considered to be Messier Object 102. NGC 5866 bears its name to a small group that also includes the spiral galaxies NGC 5879 and NGC 5907.

Another is the Draco Dwarf Galaxy, one of the least luminous galaxies with an absolute magnitude of −8.6, which was discovered by Albert G. Wilson of Lowell Observatory in 1954. PGC 39058 is another dwarf galaxy found within the Draco constellation.

Draco also features several interacting galaxies and galaxy clusters. A massive cluster is Abell 2218, which acts as a gravitational lens for even more distant background galaxies. This gravitational lensing allows astronomers to study those galaxies as well as Abell 2218 itself; more specifically, the lensing effect allows astronomers to confirm the cluster’s mass as determined by x-ray emissions.

A well-known interacting galaxies is Arp 188, also known as the “Tadpole Galaxy”, which features a tail in its appearance. This tail is actually 280,000 stars and appear blue because the gravitational interaction disturbed clouds of gas and sparked star formation.

The Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall, which is possibly the largest known structure in the universe, can be found in the southern region of the constellation.

Make sure to check out other articles on the site, including a brief introduction to constellations, other constellation articles, and more!