Draco

1
Draco
The Constellation Draco
2
The Myth

• Draco is also called the
  snake. Ancient myth says
  that
  the snake guarded
  the golden apple in
  Hesperides
  garden.
  Hercules killed the snake when he tried to get
  the apples, which was one of his labors he had to
  perform in order to be a god.

3
How to Find Draco in the Night Sky

• The stars in Draco are dim so it may be hard to
  find. The end of Draco's tail is right between
  the two dippers. The body is a string of tiny
  stars going up to the left, then turning to the
  right above the bowl of the Little Dipper. It
  bends again back to the left where a triangle of
  stars forms the Dragon's head next to one of the
  feet of Hercules. The entire figure of Draco
  forms an "S" shape with the end of the tail low
  in the north and the head high to the west of
  north. The star Vega is still higher above
  Draco's head in our evening sky. Thuban is the
  third star from the end of Draco's tail.

4
Stars in Draco

• Thuban is a giant star with a magnitude of 3.6.
• About 5000 years ago,
  in 2830 B.C., Thuban was located
  over the North Pole.
  This made it the north star.
• Rastaban is a yellow supergiant, with a magnitude
  of 2.9. It is 360 light years away. The name
  Rastaban means head of the snake, and it is
  located in the head.

5
Stars (cont.)

• Kuma is a double star with a magnitude of 4.9,
  and it is only 100 light years away

6
Deep Sky Objects

• All discovered by William Herschel.
• NGC 5907-An extremely flat disc. Discovered in
  1788, and reached a magnitude of 14.3.
• NGC 5985- Has a magnitude of 11.1
• NGC 6543- Discovered on February 15,1786. Also
  called the Cat Eye nebula. Has a magnitude of 8.1
• NGC 5982- Has a magnitude of about 11. Both this
  and NCG 5985 can be seen in the same field of
  veiw.

7
Messier Objects

• M102-May be the missing Messier object. Charles
  Messier used his friend, Pierre Méchain's,
  observation records and had this object in his
  catalog with out ever checking the object before
  publishing the book.

8
Resources

• http//www.clarkfoundation.org/astro-utah/vondel/D
  raco.html
• http//www.winshop.com.au/annew/Thuban.html
• http//www.winshop.com.au/annew/Thuban.html
• http//www.dibonsmith.com/dra_con.htm
• http//www.seds.org/messier/xtra/ngc/n5907.html
• http//www.seds.org/messier/xtra/ngc/n6543.html
• http//members.aol.com/billferris/n59825985.html
• http//www.seds.org/messier/m/m102.html