Constellations · Constellation · Hydrae · Hya
Constellation
Hydra
The largest constellation in the sky: the many-headed serpent Hercules killed, stretched more than a quarter of the way round the heavens.
- Genitive
- Hydrae
- Area
- 1,303 square degrees · 1st of 88
- Brightest star
- Alphard · magnitude 1.99
- Naked-eye stars
- 243 brighter than magnitude 6.5
- Highest at midnight
- mid February
Myth
Cut off one of the Hydra’s heads and two grew back. Hercules’ nephew seared each stump with a torch.
Look for
Its brightest star, Alphard, is “the solitary one” — alone in an empty patch of sky, its orange light easy to find beyond Leo.
Myth
On its back ride the Cup and the Crow: Apollo sent the crow to fetch water, it dawdled, and it blamed the water-snake.