Celestial monsters and a ghost
Being that it's Halloween this coming Friday, I thought it only appropriate to tell you about my favorite monsters of the Butler night sky — Draco the Dragon, and the head of Medusa, with a hairstyle made of snakes!
I’ll start with Draco the Dragon, one of the larger constellations in the night sky. Draco is available for us to see every night because it’s so close to Polaris, the North Star. It isn’t the easiest constellation to locate because most of its stars are faint, but neighboring bright stars and constellations help do the job. It also helps if you forget that Draco is supposed to resemble a dragon and instead imagine a snake, coiled about the heavens. It’s mainly a line of stars shaped into a backward letter ‘S.’
This time of year, Draco is hanging out in the northwestern sky. Start by looking for the brightest star you can see in the western sky. 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. 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. From those two stars, the main section of Draco’s body coils downward. Look for a more or less vertical crooked line of modestly bright stars that stretch down about two and a half fist-widths at arm’s length. From there, you’ll see a 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 Big Dipper. Hopefully, between my description and the diagram, you can find Draco.
In Greek mythology, Draco the Dragon was the favorite pet of Hera, the queen of the gods. Drago was Hera’s security system at her castle on Mount Olympus, on duty 24 hours a day, warding off all intruders. One night, however, when Hera was out of town, Draco met his match. Hercules, the legendary hero, was on one of his missions to atone for a hideous crime committed years before. One of his tasks was to rob Hera’s grand castle. On that fateful night as Hercules approached, Draco immediately shot into action. A tumultuous battle broke out
that went on for 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. When Hera returned to her ransacked estate she was especially upset about Draco’s demise. As a reward for his loyalty Hera magically transformed Draco's body into stars, creating the constellation we see every night, patrolling the northern heavens.
My other favorite monster in the celestial dome, the head of Medusa, resides in the constellation Perseus the Hero. Perseus was dispatched by Zeus, the king of the gods, to rid the countryside of Medusa, a horrible lady monster who was stoning everyone. Literally! Along with the ugliest face you ever saw, her hair consisted of dozens of poisonous snakes sticking out of her head. Medusa was so ugly that if you even glanced at her, you would instantly turn to stone. Medusa had to be dealt with! Perseus was armed with the wings of Mercury, the messenger of the gods, and the magic shield of Athena, the goddess of wisdom. Using that shield, he managed to kill Medusa without actually looking at the monster himself.
Zeus placed his body in the stars to honor Perseus as the constellation we see rising this Halloween week. With a bit of imagination, you can see a crooked stickman about halfway between the horizon and the overhead zenith in the northeastern skies. The Pleiades, a bright little cluster of stars, can be found just off his feet. Be careful as you look at Perseus because he’s still holding up Medusa’s severed head, marked by the bright star Algol.
Algol is also known as the “Demon Star” because it blinks as it dims in brightness. It’s certainly not a strobe light because it only dims about every three days and stays dim for about nine hours before it brightens up again. Astronomically it’s known as an eclipsing binary variable star. It’s actually a three-star system, but two of the larger stars are eclipsing each other in their nearly three-day orbit around one another. Be extra careful looking at Algol. I don’t want you stoned!
We also have a faint ghost in the early evening sky this week. It’s Comet Lemmon, known more formally as C/2025 A6 Lemmon. It’s a comet that’s making a Halloween visit to this part of the solar system. This dust and gas-spewing dirty snowball is making its closest approach to Earth. This weekend, it’s just over 60 million away and may be visible to the naked eye in the dark countryside in the low western sky around 7:30 p.m., give or take. It’ll be small and have a faint tail and a definite ghostly glow to it. In more urban lit skies you’ll probably need binoculars to spot it. On the attached diagram, I show the approximate locations this week, but I recommend you use a free stargazing app like Sky Guide or Celestron Portal to pinpoint Comet Lemmon.
Happy Halloween!
Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is also the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and at adventurepublications.net. Contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.
