Constellation Chart

The Dragon

The constellation of Draco is circumpolar; its gigantic curve surrounding the Little Dipper of Ursa Minor is one of characteristics. Stars forming the curve are fairly fine, but the head of dragon is clear as a strained square and one of that is the second magnitude. This dragon was a guard of the golden apples in the Hesperides. A Greek Myth tells that Hercules stealed the golden apple by outwitting the dragon. Alpha Draconis, Thuban, is the third one from the tip of tail, was once the Pole Star about 5000 years ago. This fact is because that the direction of rotational axis is circling with a period about 26 thousand years, so-called "precession". To say, the Pole Star changes one after another as time passed. For an example, Vega, Alpha Lyrae, will be Pole Star about 13 thousand years later.

Galaxies In Draco

NGC4125

An elliptic galaxy at the tip of Dragon's tail is NGC4125. You can find out the galaxy by tracing about 8 degrees northeast from alpha UMa, equivalent to the tip of the Big Dipper. NGC4125 has a long axis of 6 arc minutes, and can be detected a dimmed central nucleus through medium-sized telescopes.

NGC4236

Around the western edge of Draco, NGC4236 is a very dimmed outer galaxy lying at the tip of dragon's tail. The galaxy has a long axis over 20 arc minutes, but you might be needed extraordinary clear night sky to recognize the figure by using of large sized telescopes. A low magnification power is suitable to observe the unclear galaxy.

NGC5866

NGC5866 is a compact galaxy in the constellation of Draco. And I wrote "M102" in parentheses; actually this Messier's number is informal because it's considered that Messier mistook M101 for M102. Although recent researches tell this NGC5866 is M102, it's open to question whether telescopes in that time could catch such a faint celestial object with a long axis of 3 arc minutes and brightness of 10.8. The galaxy has been classified in elliptical and being edge-on, you can appreciate it as a well-proportioned spindle shape. Large telescopes can detect a dark lane crossing the center. The distance from us is estimated about 32 millions light years.

NGC5907

NGC5907 is a fine "edge-on" galaxy lying around the center of Draco, near the boundary on Auriga. The galaxy is found by tracing about 3 degrees SSW from iota Draconis with the third magnitude. The galaxy has a length of 14 arc minutes and a thickness of only 1.4-minute; you may be able to see only a simple line through scopes. Though its apparent size is very same as that of NGC4565 in Comae Berenicis, a magnitude of NGC5907 is estimated only 11.3, so NGC5907 shouldn't be listed in the easily visible objects with medium-sized telescopes. The galaxy has an undeveloped central nucleus (Bulge), and it's one of characteristics of the inconspicuous galaxy.

NGC 6503

Galaxy NGC 6503 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation of Draco. The galaxies Co-ordinates are Right Ascension: 17 49 24.0 & Declination: +70, 09 00". The magnitude of the galaxy is 10.2 and the galaxy is positioned 14 million light years away for our solar system in Draco'.

Abell 2218

Abell 2218, an enormous cluster of galaxies that resides in the constellation Draco some 2 billion light-years from Earth, is so massive that its gravitational field magnifies, brightens, and distorts the light of more distant objects. The phenomenon, known as a gravitational lens, is evident by the arc-shaped patterns found throughout the Hubble image. These "arcs" are actually distorted images of very distant galaxies, which lie five to 10 times farther than Abell 2218. This distant population existed when the universe was just a quarter of its current age. The tiny red dot just left of top center also intrigues researchers. They believe it may be an extremely remote object made visible by the cluster's magnifying powers. This is the second time Hubble observed this cluster. In 1994, scientists analyzed a black-and-white Hubble image and discovered more than 50 remote, young galaxies. The color imagery shown here is even more useful. Colors yield clues to ages, distances, and temperatures of stars.

Planetary Nebula In Draco

NGC6543

NGC6543 is a compact planetary nebula positioned in the constellation of Draco. The nebula has an apparent diameter of about 20 arc seconds and brightness of 9th magnitude, you can distinguish the nebula from normal stars through small scopes. And as you can see in this picture the nebula looks elliptical shape, the apparent figure can be appreciated by medium-sized telescopes over 6-inches in aperture. The nebula has several helical filaments being coiled up, the structure can be detected only with amateur telescopes under stable atmosphere conditions. NGC6543 has a nickname of "The Cat's eye nebula" from its elliptical shape with a central star. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) captured a splendid shot of the nebula, the picture made the nebula very popular including its unique nickname.

Planetary Destinations In Draco

CM Draconis

This cool and dim, main sequence red dwarf (M4.5 Ve) and its companion Ab have a total disc area of about 12 percent that of Sol's and a combined luminosity of 1.03 percent of Sol's (Doyle et al, 2000). Star Aa may have about 24 percent of Sol's mass and 25 percent of its diameter (see a TEP page on CM Draconis). Its large space velocity of 164 km (102 miles) per second and low flare rate are consistent with its probable status as a relatively old, Population II star (McCook et al, 1997; and Metcalfe et al, 1996). The spectrum of stars Aab is similar to that of Barnard's Star (S. M. Rucinski, 1978).

While most astronomical sources still list a distance from Sol of 47.3 light-years (ly) -- apparently as estimated in the early 1970s -- for the CM Draconis system, some astronomers studying the star more recently have been citing a revised distance of 54 to 55 ly away. In any case, this very dim system can be found in the southcentral part of Constellation Draco. CM Draconis

Iota Draconis

The proper name for Iota Draconis is derived from the Arabic "Al Dhiba" or "Al Dhih" for Male Hyena, from which comes Eldsich or, more more commonly by the end of the 19th Century, Ed Asich. And on January 8, 2002, astronomers announced the accidental discovery of a giant planet around this star.

Parent Star: Iota Draconis (K2 III) in the constellation of Draco is located at a distance of 102.74 Light Years from our Solar system Co-ordinates of Right Ascension: 15 24 55.7747 & Declination: +58 57 57.836 . The apparent Magnitude of the star is 3.3. The Inner Edge of Habitability Zone is 3.96 AU & the Outer Edge of Habitability Zone: 12.36 AU and the estimated stellar lifespan of the star is 8638 million years. Orbiting around Iota Draconis is planet Iota Draconis b the planet is believed to be a Clarified Jovian, Eccentric planet and its exitence has been confirmed. The Planets Appearance is Blue and cloudless at Mean Orbital Distance of 1.34 AU. The Planet is outside the habitability zone.. The planet Orbits around the star every 550.651 Days and was discovered by MS. Frink et al. in 2002. Iota Draconis