Watching the stars on a warm August night is very relaxing and great way to unwind after a long day. And speaking of unwinding, one of the great summer constellations has been unwound for a long time. The constellation Draco is supposed to be a Dragon in the sky, but it looks more like an uncoiled snake because according to Greek and Roman mythology Draco got stretched out in the line of duty.

Hera, the queen of the gods, was given a beautiful set of solid gold apples as wedding present from her new husband Zeus, the king of the gods. She kept the precious apple in her private garden at the castle and had her pet Draco the dragon guarded the apples. Those apples were so precious to her, even more precious than Zeus. Draco was her pet since childhood and was extremely local to Hera. He guarded those apples 24/7 and fended off many dastardly thieves.

Then one moonless night while Draco was snoozing a bit at his post, Hercules, the legendary hero, smashed the palace gate and leaped toward the golden fruit. Draco rousted himself immediately and a titanic 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 his shoe and pieced it right through the beast's heart. Hercules was then off into the night with his plundering of golden apples.

Hera discovered Draco's body and the absent apples. 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.

The great but unraveled dragon is now the large constellation that we see high northern sky in the summertime. You may want to pull up my August star map from my Web site — www.lynchandthestars.com — to help you find Draco the Dragon, it's one of the more challenging constellations to find. In a way it looks like a backward "S". It should be dark enough by around 9:30 to 10 p. m. Look nearly overhead for the brightest star you can see. That'll be the star Vega; the brightest star in another constellation Lyra the Harp. Look about 10 degrees below Vega in the direction of the northern horizon for a distinct but small diamond of stars that outline Draco's head. By the way, 10 degrees is about the width of your fist held at arm's length against the sky.

From Draco's head high in the northern sky look about 15 degrees to the lower right for two more slightly faint stars. That line from Draco's head to those two stars makes up the neck of the stretched out dragon. From there the body of Draco kinks off to the left in a nearly straight line of brighter stars about 20 degrees long. The tail of the Draco kinks to a nearly vertical line from there and ends right between the cup sections of the Big and Little Dippers.

Again Draco is not one of the easiest constellations to find but looking for it and finding it will really sharpen your stargazing skills.

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and author of the book, "Pennsylvania Starwatch," available at bookstores and at his Web site www.lynchandthestars.com