Draco
Origin
Draco is a constellation in the far northern sky and is circumpolar for observers at mid-northern latitudes and places farther north. Draco was cataloged by the second-century astronomer Ptolemy. Draco is seen as a dragon in Greek mythology.
Bright Stars
The brightest star in Draco is Etamin (or Eltanin), a 2.2-magnitude orange giant located 148 light-years from Earth. Beta Draconis, or Rastaban, is a 2.8-magnitude yellow giant 362 light-years from Earth. Alpha Draconis, or Thuban, is a magnitude-3.67 blue-white giant star located 309 light-years away. Thuban is periodically the pole star because of the precession of Earth.
Photo of the constellation Draco produced by NOIRLab in collaboration with Eckhard Slawik, a German astrophotographer.
The annotations are from a standardized set of 88 western IAU constellations and stick figures from Sky & Telescope. Please find here a non-annotated version of the image.
Credit: E. Slawik/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Zamani
Latin name
English name
Draco
Pronunciation
DRAY-ko
Abbreviation
Dra
Notable Objects
Draco contains a number of interesting objects, including NGC 6543, known as the Cat’s Eye Nebula, a planetary nebula located 3000 light-years away and shining at 9th magnitude.
