SW Diagram A

Being that it's Halloween season, I thought it only appropriate to feature a monster constellation.

Draco the Dragon would certainly qualify, but there are certainly more notorious monster constellations like Hydra, the giant sea snake; Ophiuchus, the serpent-bearer; and Cetus, the man-eating whale

The problem is that those constellations are just so faint and so large. Draco the Dragon isn't a whole lot easier to see. It's also large, and its stars are faint.

It is doable though, and once you find it you'll feel like you've really accomplished something. The best way to find Draco is to visualize it more as a coiled snake rather than as a dragon.

Actually, according to Greek mythology Draco is supposed to be a stretched out dragon, but more on that later. Then again, do we really know what dragons look like?

In October the snakelike dragon is found in the northwestern Butler sky. The best thing to do is face the western sky and look for the brightest star you can see. That's Vega, the brightest star in the small constellation Lyra the Harp. Look a little to the right of Vega for a modestly bright trapezoid of four stars that outline the head of the dragon. This is where you find Draco's brightest star, Eltanin, and that's not even that bright of a star.

Your Draco challenge is well under way. From Draco's head, hold your fist out at arm's length. At about two of your “fist widths” to the upper right you'll find two faint stars fairly close to each other. These less than brilliant stars mark the end of the snake dragon's neck.

Finding those two stars is, I think, the key to seeing the rest of Draco. From those two stars, the main section of Draco's body coils downward. Look for a more or less vertical crooked line of more modestly bright stars that stretch down about two and a half fist widths at arm's length.

From there you'll see a fairly faint but distinct horizontal line of stars that kinks off to the right that depicts the tail of Draco. You'll notice that Draco's tail lies just above the much fainter Big Dipper. Hopefully between my description and the star map you can find Draco. It kind of looks like a reversed letter S.

How did poor Draco wind up unwound in the sky? According to Greek mythology Hera, the queen of the gods, was given as a wedding present a supersize, gorgeous basket of solid gold apples from her new husband Zeus, the king of the gods.

She kept her precious apples in her private garden at the castle and had her pet dragon named Draco guard the apples. Draco was Hera's pet since childhood and was extremely loyal to her. He guarded those apples around the clock and fended off numerous unsuccessful thieves.

One moonless night while Draco was snoozing a bit at his post, Hercules, the legendary hero, was on one of his missions to atone for a hideous crime years before. One of the missions was to make off with Hera's golden apples. Hercules smashed the palace gate and charged toward the golden fruit. Draco immediately came to life and a tumultuous battle broke out that went on for hours and hours. Draco just about had Hercules trapped in his coiled tail when, with all his might, Hercules managed to pull a dagger out of his shoe and thrust it right into Draco's heart. Hercules then fled with the plundered golden apples.

Hera discovered Draco's body and the missing apple basket. She was greatly upset about losing the golden apples, but was more upset about losing a pet she'd known all her life.

Hera decided to reward Draco for his loyalty by magically placing his body in the stars as an eternal honor to him. The trouble is that when she picked up his bloody, mangled body and hurled it into the heavens, it quickly and unceremoniously unraveled.

Sharpen your stargazing skills and take the Draco challenge. This is a good time to do it since the moon and all its natural pollution will wash out the evening sky this coming week.

You can do it.

Celestial hugging

This week the bright planet Jupiter and the waning crescent moon will be practically touching each other in the low eastern morning twilight sky.

Look about 40 minutes before sunrise. You'll love it.

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul and is author of the book, “Stars; a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations” published by Adventure Publications available at bookstores and at http://www.adventurepublications.net

SW Diagram B