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Ephemeris: 05/29/2025 – Finding the celestial dragon

May 29, 2025 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Thursday, May 29th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 17 minutes, setting at 9:19, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:01. The Moon, 3 days past new, will set at 12:40 tomorrow morning.

High in the northern sky at 11 p.m. lies the twisted constellation of Draco the dragon. This dragon is more like the snakelike dragon of the Chinese New Year parades than the dinosaur-like dragon of European legend. I find it better to start at the tail of Draco, to trace him out in the stars. Draco’s tail ends between the Big and Little Dippers high in the north-northwest. The Dragon is seen in a line of stars that extends parallel to the handle of the Big Dipper before curving around the bowl of the Little Dipper then bends back down to the level of Polaris in the north-northeast before turning toward the east. The head of Draco is an odd box of stars near the bright star Vega, in the east. Though not made up of very bright stars, Draco has an easy shape to trace.

The astronomical event times given in this blog are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (Lat 44.7° N, Long 85.7° W; EDT, UT – 4 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

A Finder for Draco the dragon. Looking high in the northeast Draco can be seen. Its tail is between the Big and Little Dippers, and its head is north of the bright star Vega in Lyra the harp. According to Greek myth when the dragon was sent to attack the goddess Athena she was able to defeat it and threw it up into the sky where it got tangled with the axis of the heavens. Polaris is our current pole star, pointed to by the North Pole of the Earth’s axis. Around 2800 BCE the dim star Thuban in Draco was the pole star.
Categories: Constellations, Mythology, Observing Tags: