Talk:Draco (constellation)
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Drac{Dragon}
In a somewhat Roman/Greek legend, the dragon pictured in the constellation of Draco was said to guard the polar star.
Very anciently, the stars of Ursa Minor were considered to represent the Dragon's wing.
These sentences had no references cited to verify them, so I've removed them for the time being. Aside from their vague provenance, though, these are very interesting facts, provided a source can prove their factuality.
Could someone explain this sentence? "By astronomical chance, the Dragon's Head and Dragon's Tail mark the positions of the lunar nodes, those points where the paths of the solar and lunar orbits intersect and where solar and lunar eclipses may occur. This doesn't seem like it can be correct, because the lunar orbit plane precessess with an 18 year period. By astronomical chance, the Dragon's Head and Dragon's Tail mark the positions of the those points where the paths of the solar and lunar orbits intersect and where solar and lunar eclipses may occur. The Dragon's head (Caput draconis, refers to the ascending node, the Dragon's tail , the descending node. In several cultures, an eclipse was attributed to the disappearance of the moon or sun as they were swallowed by a dragon.
By:Annie Lang
[edit] Thuban / Lumbis
The star α Draconis is generally known as Thuban, from what I've been able to gather, and is referred to as such throughout the article. However, the first mention of it on the page calls it "lumbis" instead; I did a rather quick search for the name/word, and didn't come up with much. It's got something to do with stars, but I don't think it's a name...
...the link to Thuban was changed to Lumbis a mere few weeks ago, by an anon IP account with only one contribution, so I have no way to tell if the edit was meant to fix or confuse. (it's doing a good job of the latter for me.) Can someone with more experience in the matter then me tell if this was simply a mistaken edit, or actually a productive one? I have no experience with stars or constellations before this point, so I don't trust any judgment calls I make on the subject... -- Jïörüjï Ðērākō.>.cнаt^ 05:31, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
- Well hey Jioruji. I'm clueless when it comes to extraterrestrial things, but I'd say that it's best to have consistency throughout the article. Calor (talk) 05:34, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
- Consistency is something I had forgotten about. :D Yes, by that logic, that link should have never been changed, and I'll revert it. But I'm quite curious about the Thuban / Lumbis connection still; if the star is or was known as Lumbis at one point, that's something worth documenting. If it wasn't and isn't, then I personally wouldn't mind having things cleared up.
- And... Calor? Expletive deleted. I think I know that name. Please tell me it's just a popular username or something, and not that I'm being stalked across the 'net. -- Jïörüjï Ðērākō.>.cнаt^ 06:04, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
[edit] RA/Dec
The RA/Dec we have listed, 15h / +75 degrees, is the same as what we have listed for Ursa Minor. In fact, that point appears to be inside Ursa Minor. What's the algorithm for determining these coordinates? DenisMoskowitz (talk) 23:01, 12 February 2008 (UTC)
