DRACO: The Dragon Tyler Higbee Physics 1040 sec 11 TR 10 am Constellation Paper

Mythology: The Constellation Draco has a lot of mythology behind it. It was first cataloged by the Greeks in the second century by the Astronomer Ptolemy. The most frequent mythology is from Greece with the twelve labors of Hercules. With the Greek mythology there are different variations of Draco the Greeks believe he is the dragon Ladon and that he was put into the heavens by Hera. Ladon was given the task by Hera to guard the golden apple tree that she had received as a wedding present when she married Zeus. Hera planted the tree in her garden on Mount Atlas and tasked Atlas daughters, the Hesperides, with guarding it. That was when Ladon was placed at the tree to make sure that the Hesperides also did not pick the fruit. Most of the stories involving Ladon and greek mythology end the same however Hercules was asked to steal some golden apples from the tree. He killed Ladon with his poisoned arrows and took the apples. Saddened by the dragons death, Hera placed its image in the sky among the constellations. Draco is usually depicted coiled around the North Pole, with one foot of Hercules on its head.1 Roman and Christianity also have mythology on Draco Roman Goddess Minerva took Draco by the tail and put it into the sky during the battle for Mount Olympus. Draco has also been identified in early Christianity as the serpent that tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden.2 Draco was also used In ancient Egypt, the constellation was called Tawaret, after the vigilant, protective goddess of the northern sky, whose body depicted as part-human, part-lioness, partcrocodile, and part-hippopotamus3 as for the actual Mythology on Draco I does not specifically say which one was the first, there is more with the Greek Mythology than any other one.

Constellation and Stars Draco is in the Ursa Major family of constellations; however the constellations that directly border Draco are Botes, Hercules, Cepheus, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Lyra, Cygnus and Corona Borealis. Hercules is standing on top of Dracos head, Lyra is next to Hercules, Corona Borealis is on the other side of Hercules. Next to Lyra is Cepheus who is next to Camelopardalis as well as Ursa Minor. Camelopardalis does not really border Draco but they are in the same Constellation family. Next to Ursa Minor is, Ursa Major on the other side of Ursa Major is Botes. On the left side of Draco or the right depending on how you look at it is Corona Borealis, Botes, and Ursa Major on the other side Lyra, Cepheus, Cygnus, and Camelopardalis. Draco has eighteen stars with five stars having known planets; one of the closest constellations to the north celestial pole, Draco is a circumpolar shape visible all year in the Northern Hemisphere. Even though Draco is visible year round he is easiest to spot in the late spring.4 Draco is the eighth largest constellation in the sky Draco takes up 40 degrees of the northern hemisphere. Right ascension: 17 hours Declination: 65 degrees visible between latitudes 90 and minus 15 degrees. The 20 brightest stars in the constellation are listed in the table that follows with their location, visible magnitude, spectral classification and distance on Light years. There are four stars that make up Dracos head; Gamma Draconis also called Eltanin is Dracos brightest star it is an Orange Giant, it lies close to the point directly over London and is sometimes referred to as the Zenith Star. The three other stars that make up Dracos head are Rastaban, Kuma, and Grumium. Rastaban is a Yellow Giant, Grumium is an Orange giant as well as Gamma Draconis6

Name Dra Gamma Dra Eta Dra Beta Dra Delta Dra Zeta Dra Iota Dra Chi Thuban Dra Xi Dra Lambda Dra Epsilon Dra Kappa Dra Theta Dra Phi HD 81817 Dra Tau Dra Rho Dra A Psi CU Dra 10 Draconis Dra Pi Table 5

RA DEC h m s 17 56 36.38 +51 29 20.2 16h 23m 59.51s +61 30 50.7 17h 30m 25.98s +52 18 04.9 19h 12m 33.15s +67 39 40.7 17h 08m 47.23s +65 42 52.7 15h 24m 55.78s +58 57 57.7 18h 21m 02.34s +72 44 01.3 14h 04m 23.43s +64 22 32.9 17h 53m 31.63s +56 52 20.8 11h 31m 24.29s +69 19 52.0 19h 48m 10.21s +70 16 04.2 12h 33m 29.04s +69 47 17.6 16h 01m 53.70s +58 33 52.0 18h 20m 45.44s +71 20 15.8 09h 37m 05.35s +81 19 35.1 19h 15m 33.29s +73 21 18.8 20h 02m 49.05s +67 52 24.4 17h 41m 56.31s +72 08 58.2 13h 51m 25.94s +64 43 23.8

Visual Mag. 2.24 2.73 2.79 3.07 3.17 3.29 3.55 3.67 3.73 3.82 3.84 3.85 4.01 4.22 4.28 4.45 4.51 4.57 4.58

Distance (ly) 148 88 361 100 340 102 26 309 111 334 146 498 68 289 1076 150 406 72 391 225

Spectral class K5III G8III G2II G9III B6III K2III F7Vvar A0III SB K2III M0IIIvar G8III B6IIIp F8IV-V A0p (Si) K3III K3III K3III F5IV-V M3III A2IIIs

19h 20m 40.07s 19h 20m 40.07s 4.60

Things of Interest The first thing of interest that I thought was really cool was the star Thuban which is Dracos Alpha star (which is not in the head or the tail of Draco Thuban is actually a star in Dracos body) was used by the Ancient Egyptians to build the Pyramids they used that star as the North Star but Polaris is the North Star for us, and if Im understanding Astronomy like I think I am in another thousand years give or take Polaris will not be the North Star it will be a different star. Cats Eye Nebula is interesting for two reasons the first combined images from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra Observatory show this dying Sun-like star is emitting extremely hot gasses. Scientist predict that the Sun will go through a similar process in five billion years4 but also because it has a pattern of eleven ore more concentric rings, or shells each ring is an edge of a spherical bubble seen projected onto the sky, observations suggest the star ejected its mass in a series of pulses at 1,500-year intervals. These convulsions created dust shells, each of which contains as much mass as all of the planets in our solar system combined.7

Another really cool thing about Draco is it has its very own Meteor shower, what makes it even better is that when you see the Meteor shower it actually looks like it is coming out of Draco. Earths orbit crosses the orbital path of Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner. Debris left behind by this comet collides with the Earths upper atmosphere, to burn up as Draconid meteors. Orbital period of about 6.6 years, at aphelion its farther out than the planet Jupiter. At perihelion its about the Earths distance from the sun. Meteors in annual showers arent named for their parent comets, but instead for the constellation from which they appear to radiate.8

Cats Eye Nebula

Cats Eye Nebula

Spiral Galaxy NGC 6946

Picture from the Hubble Telescope of the Cats Eye Nebula

Mix up of the Cats Eye Nebula

Depicted picture of Draco and some of his surrounding Constellations

Stars that make up Draco

What it looks like and how to find him in the sky

Star Map of the Northern Hemisphere

Work Cited 1) Constellation guide Constellations: a guide to the night sky Draco Constellation http://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/draco-constellation/ Retrieved 2/13/14 2) Draco Constellation: Facts about the Dragon http://www.space.com/16755-draco-constellation.html Retrieved 2/13/14 3) Constellation on Top Astronomer: Draco http://www.topastronomer.com/StarCharts/Constellations/Draco.php Retrieved 2/13/14 4) Schneider, Howard, and Sandy Wood. Backyard Guide to the Night Sky. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2009. Print. 5) Wikipedia List of stars in Draco http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stars_in_Draco Published February 15, 2014 Retrieved 2/20/14 6) Ashland Astronomy Studio http://www.astrostudio.org/xhip.php?hip=80331 Retrieved 2/24/14 7) NASA website and publisher, published electronically on September 16, 2004 Author is Brian Dunbar http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_211.html Retrieved 2/24/14 8) Earth Sky http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-draconid-meteorshower Retrieved 2/24/14