Home > Draco (constellation)

Draco (also known as the dragon or dragon constellation) is a far northern constellationOrion is a remarkable constellation, visible from most places on the globe (but not always the whole year long). A constellation is a group of stars visibly related to each other in a particular configuration. In three-dimensional space, most of the stars that is circumpolar for many northern hemisphere observers. It is one of the 88 modern constellations, and one of the 48 constellations listed by PtolemyThis article is about the geographer and astronomer Ptolemy. For Alexander the Great's general, see Ptolemy I of Egypt. For others, see Ptolemy (disambiguation). Claudius Ptolemaeus (Greek: Klaudios Ptolemaios; A. circa 85 circa 165), known in English as.

1 Notable features

The star ThubanThe star (or star system) Thuban also known as Alpha Draconis would be totally obscure if it weren't that due to the precession of Earth's rotational axis it was the naked-eye star closest to the north pole from some time prior to 3000 BC until 1900 BC (w (α Draconis) was the northern pole starA pole star is a visible star that is approximately aligned with the Earth's axis of rotation; that is, a star that lies in the direction pointed to by one of Earth's poles. There are potentially both north and south pole stars, but whether there is eithe around 2700 B.C.28th century BC 27th century BC 26th century BC other centuries) ( 4th millennium BC 3rd millennium BC 2nd millennium BC) Events 2900 2334 BC Mesopotamian wars of the Early Dynastic period 2775 2650 BC Second Dynasty wars in Egypt Germination of the Brist, during the time of the ancient EgyptiansJumhuriyat Misr al-Arabiyah ( In Detail) Official language Arabic Capital Cairo Largest City Cairo President Hosni Mubarak Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif Area Total % water Ranked 29th 1,001,450 km² 0. 6% Population Total (2003) Density Ranked 15th 74,718,797. Due to the effects of precession, it will once again be the pole star around the year 21,000 A.D.

Although Thuban's Bayer designation is α Draconis, it is not the brightest star in the constellation. At magnitude 3.65, it is more than a magnitude fainter than the brightest star, Etamin (γ Draconis), whose magnitude is 2.23.

There are several double stars of interest in Draco.

consists of two components of magnitude 4.9, 62 arcseconds apart. They can be split with binoculars.