Constellation tour in Summer
Draco (The Dragon)

Click on image to enlarge

Date & Time: Mar 20 2020, from 27:26 to 27:52 JST(+0900)
Composed 6 shots with 5 minutes exposed
Optical: AF zoom-Nikkor 24-85mm (f=24mm, stop: F4.0)
with IDAS LPS-P2-FF Light-pollution suppression
& Kenko PRO Softon[A] filters
Auto-guided with TAKAHASHI EM-200 Equatorial
Digital Camera: Canon EOS 600D (Remodeled)
Location: Ooizumi, Hokuto city, Yamanashi pref.

Camera Settings: Recording Format...14bit CCD-RAW, converted to 16bit TIFF(5184×3456)
Sensitivity...ISO800



Astroarts StellaNavigator 		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.


Guide for Deep Sky Objects

NGC4125 ..... A compact elliptic galaxy at the tail of Dragon
NGC4236 ..... Very large but indistinct edge-on galaxy lying around tail of Dragon.
NGC5866(M102) ..... Compact elliptic galaxy near border to Bootes, M102 is a informal number
NGC5905, NGC5908 ..... Bared and spiral galaxies paralleling 3.5 deg. SSW of ι Dra.
NGC5907 ..... A fine edge-on galaxy near the boundary on Auriga
NGC5963, NGC5965 .....Two paralleled galaxies with 10'-interval at 2.6 deg. SE of ι Dra
Around NGC5982 ..... A galactic trio with different shapes around center of Dragon's body
NGC5987 .....Small spiral galaxy at 2deg. ESE of ι Dra
NGC6015 ..... A spiral galaxy in central region of Draco
NGC6140 .....Medium-scaled spiral galaxy in central region, 48 million ly away
Around NGC6286(Arp 293) .....Tyny interacting galaxy pair at 6deg. NW of ν Dra, 250 million ly away
NGC6503 ..... An edge-on galaxy in eastern region of Draco
Cat's eye Nebula ..... An elliptical planetary nebula near the head of Draco
NGC6670 .....Unique-shaped interacting galaxy pair at 3deg. NE of ξ Dra, "Leaping Dolphines"
Tadpole Galaxy ..... An anomalous shaped galaxy bathed in center of Draco, 450 millions ly away
Draco Dwarf ..... Elliptical dwarf galaxy around head of Draco, 260 thousand ly away
Arp330 ..... Small-scaled galay chain bathed in 6deg. west of β Dra.
Molecular Cloud around η Dra ..... Indistinct molecular cloud floating east of η Dra with span of 5deg.



Vulpecula
Ursa Minor

Copyright(c) 2020 by Naoyuki Kurita, All rights reserved.
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