Draco
What is Draco?
Constellations· Summer evenings (N) · a long line winding between the two bears. The dragon coiled around the pole, winding between the two bears to a quadrilateral head near Vega. Thuban in its tail was the pole star around 2800 BC, when the pyramids were being built.
📍 Visible from where you are right now — computed in your browser
bearing · altitude · rise time · best time tonight
Where Draco is in your sky right now: https://nowsky.org/solar/sky?sel=con:Draco — location and time set automatically, no login.
Stars of the figure
| Star | Magnitude |
|---|---|
| Eltanin | 2.2 |
| Eta Draconis | 2.7 |
| Altais | 3.1 |
The 3 brightest of the 7 stars used in the figure (7 lines). Lower magnitude means brighter.
Deep-sky objects near this constellation
Constellation basics
| Season | circumpolar from the north, highest on summer evenings |
|---|---|
| Brightest star | Eltanin (2.2) |
| How to find | trace the chain between the bears to the quadrilateral head near Vega |
| Area rank | 8th of 88 |
Figures are representative approximations. Source: compiled from NASA and IAU public data.
Frequently asked
- When can I see Draco?
- circumpolar from the north, highest on summer evenings.
- How do I find Draco?
- trace the chain between the bears to the quadrilateral head near Vega.
- What is the brightest star in Draco?
- Eltanin, magnitude 2.2.
- Where is Draco in the sky right now?
- Open the sky view for your location and time and it shows the position in the sky right now.
The Draconids of 8 October — the two years they erupted
A meteor shower streams from the head of Draco on evenings around 8 October. Unlike most showers, which are best before dawn, its radiant stands high in the early evening, but in ordinary years it gives only a few meteors an hour. In 1933 and 1946, just after the parent comet Giacobini–Zinner had passed near Earth's orbit, thousands an hour fell, recorded as among the greatest meteor storms of the twentieth century.
In 2011 Europe saw around 300 an hour, and at the comet's 2018 return the forecasts missed and the sky stayed quiet. The Draconids are the standard example of a shower that swings wildly from year to year depending on when and where the comet laid down its dust, and they are used to test models of dust streams. Draco is up all year and seldom noticed, but for an evening in October it is sometimes the main event.
The constellation in depth
Draco is Ladon, the dragon that guarded the golden apples of the Hesperides and fell to Heracles, or the dragon Athena hurled into the sky during the war with the Titans, freezing it around the pole. Coiled so close to the celestial pole, it never sets from mid-northern latitudes. Its faint stars make the dragon a test of a dark sky rather than a showpiece, yet the shape is unmistakable once traced.
Thuban in the tail was the pole star around 2800 BC because of precession, and some argue a shaft in the Great Pyramid was aimed at it. Eltanin in the head will pass within 28 light-years of the Sun in about 1.5 million years and outshine Sirius. Near the head lies the Cat's Eye Nebula, NGC 6543, one of Hubble's iconic images.
On summer evenings look north between the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper for a snaking line of faint stars. Follow it east and upward and you reach a small quadrilateral of four stars near Vega — the dragon's head. Set the Sky view to a July night, turn on the constellation lines, and trace the coils almost to the zenith.
Related
Figures are representative approximations. Simulated positions use J2000 mean elements.