The stars of Draco the Dragon, wind through the picture. North is to
the left. Vega, in
Lyra, is at the lower right corner,
Hercules at center right,
Bootes at upper right, while the bowl of the
Little Dipper is at center left and Cepheus
at lower left. Draco's squarish head is just below center, its two
bright stars Rastaban (Beta) on top, Eltanin (Gamma) on the bottom, Arrakis (Mu)
up and a bit to the left of the two. Unresolved, 16 and 17 Dra are up and a bit
to the right of Arrakis.
Kuma (Nu) is to the left of Rastaban, Grumium (Xi) down and to the
left of Kuma. Proceeding to the left and a bit
down is Altais (Delta) and Epsilon. Sigma is between the two, while
Tau, Chi, and Phi (Phi to the right of Chi) are up from Epsilon.
Zeta is up and to the left of Kuma, Eta (Al Dhibain Prior)
up and to the right of
Zeta (Al Dhibain Posterior). 34 (Psi-2) and Psi-1 (31) are on a line directly
up from Phi. We then go up and to the right to find
Theta. Kappa Dra lies in the upper left corner. Then look to the right
and somewhat down to find a pair of stars, the lower of which is
famed Thuban (Alpha), which lies right next to 10 Dra.
Edasich (Iota) is then
down and to the right of Thuban. Kappa is flanked by 4 (on top) and
6 (bottom) Draconis. Draco then continues up and to the left
to the Dragon's tail at its far western end
and Giauser (Lambda). The North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) is about three-fifths of the way from Delta to Zeta. The South Ecliptic Pole is in Dorado. The two northern stars of Hercules' Keystone are at center right, Eta on top, Pi on the bottom. Chi Her is the brightest of the small trio up and a bit left of Eta. The other two are 2 Her on the left, 4 Her on the right, while X Her is the faint red star down and to the right of Chi. |
To see a labelled image, push the star: |
See full resolution. |
See western Draco. |
See Draco with the two Dippers. |
Draco has two stars with orbiting PLANETS: Edasich (Iota Draconis, whose companion might be a brown dwarf) and HR 6817. |
See Draco in context with Hercules, Lyra, and Ophiuchus. |
For more on Draco, see Draggin' the Dragon at Stellar Stories. |