Constellations · Constellation · Draconis · Dra
Constellation
Draco
The dragon that guarded the golden apples of the Hesperides, coiling around the pole. Its star Thuban was the pole star when the pyramids were built.
- Genitive
- Draconis
- Area
- 1,083 square degrees · 8th of 88
- Brightest star
- Eltanin · magnitude 2.24
- Naked-eye stars
- 217 brighter than magnitude 6.5
- Highest at midnight
- mid June
Myth
Ladon, the dragon Hercules slew to steal the apples for his eleventh labour. Hercules still kneels over its head.
History
Around 2700 BC Thuban sat almost exactly at the pole. Some have argued that a shaft in the Great Pyramid pointed at it.
Look for
The dragon’s head is a lozenge of four stars near Vega. Eltanin, its eye, passes almost overhead at London — which is how James Bradley, measuring it, discovered the aberration of starlight in 1728.