While most folks are familiar with the Big and Little Dippers, in the same region of the sky is a long, winding group of stars that portrays the mythological creature of a dragon named Draco, which during late evening hours is riding high above Polaris, the North Star.

Draco is a very ancient grouping. The earliest Sumerians considered these stars to represent the dragon Tiamat. Later it became one of the creatures that Hercules killed. One of Draco's tasks was to guard the garden of Hesperides and its golden apples that Hercules was supposed to retrieve. In the stars, Draco coils around Polaris and we now see Hercules standing (albeit upside down) on Draco's head.

The Dragon's head is the most conspicuous part of Draco: an irregular quadrangle, not quite half the size of the Big Dipper's bowl.

The brightest star is Eltanin, a second magnitude star, shining with an orange tinge. Interestingly, a number of temples in Ancient Egypt were oriented toward this star. The faintest of the four stars in the quadrangle however is worth looking for: Nu Draconis, a wonderful double star for very small telescopes. The two stars are practically the same brightness, both appearing just a trifle brighter than fifth magnitude and separated by just over one arc minute (or about 1/30^th the apparent diameter of a full Moon).

I first stumbled across Nu as a teenager in the Bronx, using low power on a 4¼-inch Newtonian reflecting telescope. I liken it to a pair of tiny headlights. Check it out for yourself.

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