•For years, I've glanced up in the north at this time of year and spied the two stars marked on today's chart, Rastaban and Eltanin in the constellation Draco. They're noticeable because they're relatively bright and so near each other. There's always that split-second when I ask myself with some excitement what two stars are those?
• It's then that my eyes drift to blue-white Vega nearby . . . and I know, by Vega's nearness, that they are Rastaban and Eltanin in the Dragon's Head.
• In other words - because the stars stay fixed relative to each other - Vega is always near these stars. Vega, by the way, lodges at the apex of the Summer Triangle, a famous pattern consisting of

three bright stars in three separate constellations, also prominent at this time of year.
• Speaking of Rastaban and Eltanin, one of you asked, What are constellations?
• The answer is that they're just patterns of stars on the sky's dome. The Greeks and Romans, for example, named them for their gods and goddesses, and also for many sorts of animals. In the 20th century, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) formalized the names and boundaries of the constellations. Now every star in the sky belongs to one or another constellation.
• The stars within constellations aren't connected, except in the mind's eye of stargazers. The stars in general lie at vastly different distances from Earth. It's by finding juxtaposed patterns on the sky's dome that you'll come to know the constellations - much as I identify Rastaban and Eltanin at this time of year by looking for the star Vega.
•