Wednesday, April 05, 2017

The Letter D: Draco


We are at the letter D in our A-Z tour of heavenly bodies.  There are only three constellations that begin with a “D”, the most popular being Draco or the Dragon.  This constellation doesn’t stand out like the dippers or Orion.  Most of the stars are rather dim and although the constellation is huge, wrapping itself around the North Pole, it is hard to follow the stars to make out the dragon as it squeezes in between the two dippers (or the Bears or Ursa Major and Minor).   However, it is visible most of the year for those of us in the northern latitudes, but it is probably best seen in summer when it is higher in the sky.  For southern readers, Draco will remain elusive. 
There are several legends that are associated with Draco.  In one, Ladon the dragon guards the apples of Hesperides, which is under Atlas’ control.  Hercules final feat that will free him is to snatch one of these “golden apples.”  By tricking Atlas, Hercules fetches an apple and in the summer when the dragon is at its zenith, Hercules can be seen standing over the dragon. 

There's another legend set in primordial times when the Titanic gods fought against the Olympic gods.  In this story, Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, caught the dragon by its tail and tossed it up on the dome of stars in the sky where it swings around and around the pole (kind of like a record turning on a turntable).  Some say the dragon got tangled up and was unable to free itself and, being near the pole, froze there.   

The Dragon and Bear

Most everyone has heard of the North Star, but I’m pretty sure even the oldest of my readers can't recall a time when that star set in the Little Dipper didn’t stand over the Celestial Pole.  But the North Star has not always maintained this prominent position over the pole.  A mere five thousand years ago, Thuban (or alpha-draconis), a star within Draco’s tail, was the star that appeared over the pole.  The star does move, just very slowly. Although I’m pretty sure I won’t live to see it, twenty-some thousand years from now, the dragon will again claim the north point in the sky.

14 comments:

  1. I love dragons but don't know much about the constellations. Interesting subject.

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  2. Draco always makes me think of Harry Potter. I didn’t know it was also a constellation. :)

    Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  3. Shameful to admit, but I've always had trouble locating the dippers - so I doubt I can find Draco. Especially if he's (slowly) on the move. ;)

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  4. AJ's comment made me chuckle, because I had thought about Harry Potter when I saw the name Draco. :P

    How fascinating that the dragon will once again be the north point in the sky.

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  5. I used to be fascinated by the constellations, back when I could see the stars at night (not so much in the city.) This is a lovely idea for the A to Z Challenge.

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  6. I'm not familiar with this one, but I'm able to pick out the Dippers occasionally at home, so I'll have to take a look up next time we have a cloud free night to see if I can spot it!

    Cait @ Click's Clan

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  7. The stars tell such interesting tales!

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  8. Most know about the North star and the Dippers. I wish the others weren't so hard to see without a chart.

    "Female Scientists Before Our Time"
    Shells–Tales–Sails

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  9. I love the pictures of the constellations, but I marvel how anyone could take a collection of points and see such fantastic creatures.

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  10. I agree with Tamara. Maybe I don't have a good enough imagination but I don't see images in the constellations.

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  11. Yeah, the first thought that came to me when I saw "Draco" was the Harry Potter movies and books. On a serious side note, the guy who played Daddy Draco in the movies is the captain in the upcoming Star Trek series.

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  12. Oh! That's really helpful, because the Pole star and the Dippers are the only constellations I know by sight (also Cassiopeia, which is the three in a line, right?). So maybe now I can also pick out Draco...

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  13. I was right about D for Draco! I can remember lying in a field in Portree, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia with a constellation map and a flashlight covered with red cellophane in the summer of 1969 determined to find the dragon in the sky. It was great fun, but now it's so much harder to find a dark sky to search in. I can wrap my mind around the gradual shift in the Earth's axis of rotation and how the poles trace a "cone" over 26,000 year, but I my eyes cross when I try to visualize and understand the "precession of the equinoxes" along the ecliptic. The ancient astronomers figured all this stuff out ~ amazing.

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