On Mon, 4 Oct 1999 you wrote:

> I have to do a report on Draco Do you have anything that could help?

Hi,

you can find information on Draco (and other constellations) at the
following web page: http://www.dibonsmith.com/dra_con.htm

Here is what they say about Draco:
Transit Date of principal star:
23 April

The ancient story of the Dragon concerns the
Golden Apples
of the Hesperides and Heracles' Eleventh Labour.

The eleventh task of Heracles (some references
say it was
the Twelfth) was to steal the golden apples from
the apple
tree which Gaia (Mother Earth) had given to
Hera, Queen of
the Heavens, at her wedding to Zeus.

Hera had chosen Ladon, a monstrous dragon with a
hundred
heads, to guard her precious tree. So Ladon
would lay in the
garden, coiling himself around the tree, and
Hera feared no
one would steal her apples.

Heracles went about collecting useful bits of
information
about the dragon, finding out how to fool it and
steal the
apples. One suggestion was to take along Atlas,
who could be
of some assistance.

For having opposed Zeus, Atlas had been punished
by having
to carry the world on his shoulders. Heracles
devised the
perfect plan; he offered to relieve Atlas of the
terrible burden
for an hour or so, long enough for Atlas to
perform a favour in
return: fetch the golden apples from the Garden
of the
Hesperides.

Atlas was in agreement; anything for a little
rest. But there
was one problem: the terrible dragon. Heracles
saw no
problem. He shot an arrow over the garden wall,
killing Ladon
instantly.

While Heracles hoisted up the globe, Atlas
trotted off to
retrieve the three golden apples. At his return
Atlas found he
could go on living quite happily without the
weight of the
world on his shoulders, so he told Heracles,
"just a few more
months and I'll return", planning to leave
Heracles the task of
carrying the worldly globe.

Heracles agreed but asked Atlas if he could get
more
comfortable. He begged Atlas to take the globe
for a moment
while he put some padding on his head. Atlas
placed the
apples on the ground and picked up the globe.

Heracles thanked him very much and walked away
with the
three apples.

As for Ladon, Hera felt miserable over its loss
and placed it in
the heavens, coiled around the north pole.

As it wraps itself around the northern
hemisphere Draco is
circumpolar, not far from the North Pole. In
fact Thuban
(alpha Draconis) was once the Pole Star, at
about the time
these stories were being told for the first
time.

A very old and extensive constellation,
Draco once
held even more stars. Quite fittingly,
Hercules is just to
the east of Draco. In fact, some
cartographers draw
the figure of Hercules with one foot resting
on the head
of Draco.

Depending on the time of year one studies the
constellation,
its head (formed by beta, gamma, nu, and xi)
takes on a
different look. When beta and gamma are `on
top', they look
like two eyes, or perhaps the forehead. Other
times of the
year the face is rather indistinct.

There are a full range of Bayer stars in the
constellation.
While there are few deep sky objects of any
interest (and just
one Messier) the constellation does have a wide
variety of
interesting binaries to investigate, some of
which are listed
further below.

Thuban is the Arabic name for Dragon. To find
Thuban
sweep down the length of the Little Dipper and
jump over to
the end of the handle of the Big Dipper. Midway
is found a
much fainter star, which is Thuban. It is
believed that the star
was considerably brighter several thousand years
ago.

This star was the pole star at about 2700
BC. The fact
that Thuban was the Pole Star at just the
time the
Egyptians were building pyramids hasn't
escaped the
archaeologists.

The main object of the archaeologists' study
is the
Great Pyramid of Khufu. It is claimed that a
particular
passage in the pyramid was built to point at
Thuban as
that star dipped to its lower culmination.

However, if the above assumption is true,
then the
pyramid would have been built at around 2200
BC.
The problem is that Khufu is about five
hundred years
older.

There are many books and articles on the
subject (and
no doubt several web pages on the Internet)
for those
who wish to delve deeper into the problem or
to study
the alignment of other stars with ancient
artifacts.

Double stars in Draco:

Draco has dozens of binaries worth
investigating. Below are
some of the more easily resolved double star
systems, and a
couple not-so-easy ones.

Mu Draconis is one of the closer binaries, a
slow orbit
of 482 years. Presently the companion can be
found at
PA 14: and separation 1.91".

Nu Draconis is a splendid fixed binary,
found in the
dragon's head. Two similar 4.9 visual
magnitude stars:
PA 312: and separation 61.6".

Psi Draconis is also easily resolved: 4.9,
6.1; PA 15:,
separation 30.3"

Omicron Draconis has a fine colour contrast,
orange
and blue. Magnitudes 4.7, 7.5; PA 326:,
separation
34.2".

17 Draconis forms a magnificent fixed triple
with 16
Draconis. 17AB: 5.5, 6.4, PA 108:,
separation 3.4"; 16
Draconis is component C: PA 194, separation
90.3".

26 Draconis is a close binary with orbit of
76 years.
The component is currently at PA 334: and
separation
1.6". There is a faint (10m) very wide third
member, at
PA 162: and separation 12.3'.

41 and 40 Draconis (Struve 2308) form a
pleasant,
fairly wide, binary of two cream-coloured
stars: 5.7,
6.0: PA 232:, 19.3". Note that 41 is the
primary.

Struve 2398 is an extremely near binary at
only 11.3
light years. It consists of two red dwarfs,
8.0, 8.5; PA
163:, separation 15.3". It is thought the
companion has
an orbit of roughly 350 years.

The binary is found just between omicron
Draconis (which to the east) and 39
Draconis.

Variable stars in Draco:

R Draconis is a Mira-type variable with a
period of
245.6 days; it fluctuates from 6.7 to 13.2
magnitude. In
2000 the maximum should occur in the third
week of
April.

Deep Sky Objects in Draco:

Draco offers one Messier object: M102 (although
this object
is not universally recognised as a bona fide
Messier). With
several dozen other galaxies, and a bright
planetary nebula,
there are plenty of objects to study. Below are
a few
suggestions.

M102 (NGC 5866) is an edge-on galaxy with
dust
lane and brightly glowing centre.

The galaxy is four degrees southwest of
iota
Draconis.

NGC 5907 is in the same region one degree
east of
M102. This is another edge-on (nearly flat)
galaxy
with dust lane.

NGC 5985 is an inclined spiral, quite faint
unless under
ideal conditions.

NGC 5985 is midway between iota and
theta
Draconis; (NGC 5982 is in the same field
to the
west. This elliptical gallaxy is
considerably
smaller but about the same magnitude,
around
12).

NGC 6543: a planetary nebula that appears as
a
miniscule blue-green disk. Because of its
blue-green
colouring, it is sometimes called the Cat's
Eye Nebula.
It's located halfway between delta and zeta
Draconis.
It's exact distance isn't known; estimates
vary from
1500 to 3500 light years.

[The above web site excerpt is (c) 1999 by richard Dibon-Smith)

Thanks for writing!

Sincerely,
Kurtis Williams

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