Draco is a constellation located in the far northern sky. Its name means “the dragon” in Latin. Draco is one of the largest constellations and contains several bright stars. The brightest star in Draco is Thuban, which was once the North Star.
Draco contains many interesting deep-sky objects. These include the Cat’s Eye Nebula, a planetary nebula that resembles a cat’s eye when viewed through a telescope; the Blinking Planetary, a strange binary star system that appears to “blink” every few years; and NGC 6543, another planetary nebula known as the “Eskimo Nebula” because it resembles a face surrounded by fur.
Draco also has two galaxies within its boundaries: Messier 94 (also known as NGC 4736), a spiral galaxy with a bright central region, and Messier 102 (also known as NGC 5866), an elliptical galaxy that appears nearly edge-on when viewed from Earth.