The constellation of the Dragon (Dra) is very noticeable onfirmament. It can be seen with the naked eye - the figure passes through the Little Dipper, the head is north of Hercules, but the body is difficult to see, because it consists of many weakly burning stars. Next to the Dragon are such constellations of the North sky as Small and Big Dipper, Hercules. He was next to Hercules without a doubt: if you remember the legend, the dragon in the sky is the very snake that lost the battle, was defeated by the hero in the garden.
In ancient times, the first to see the constellation of the Dragonthe inhabitants of Mesopotamia. There are several mythological versions of its origin. As they say in mythology, after the secret birth of the dragon in the cave of Zev, his father, the vicious and vindictive Cron, learned of the deception and decided to kill the baby. The dragon had to turn to the snake, and he also turned his nannies into bears. That's how the constellations of the starry sky appeared - Small and Big Dipper and Dragon. This version is confirmed also by the fact that all three constellations are located in one, circumpolar, celestial area.
Sometimes the constellation of the Dragon is associated with the legend of theTitanomahia. In a bloody battle, in its midst, someone threw into the goddess Athena a huge snake. Athena, grabbing the tail of the dragon, launched it with all the force into the sky, so that he flew to
Heavenly Pole, where he tried to heaven.So he remained the memory of the victory of the gods over the Titans! But the inhabitants of Babylon believed that the star is protected by the evil snake, to whom the god Mardug himself entrusted this matter. In many myths, the dragon is represented by a terrible being that leads fear to the common people. But also people believed that he was a guard sent by the gods to protect the stars.
The constellation of the Dragon in the sky, which has a significantan area of 1083 square degrees, is of interest for amateur astronomers. English astronomer James Bradley made one of the biggest discoveries related to the constellation of the Dragon. After graduating from Oxford
University, James decided to give himself completelyscience and began to work in the same university, later became a professor of astronomy. Having achieved striking successes, eventually he became the director of one of the observatories. But long before that, the astronomer had been watching the constellation of the Dragon, trying to find confirmation of the main parallactic displacement, or, more accurately, to say that the seemingly periodic movements of stars in the celestial sphere are caused by the really rotation of the Earth around the Sun. The astronomer worked a lot and discovered the displacement of the constellation, but it did not happen as we would like, but in the opposite direction. Bradley was able to explain this fact: all his observations showed that everything was caused by the orbital motion of the Earth, which was the proof.
In principle, the constellation is visible all over Russia, you canwatch it for at least a year. It is best seen in March and May. There are many interesting groups of stars, but the constellation of the Dragon really fascinates, it is shrouded in mystery. That's why so many myths and stories were devoted to him.
