dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (03/06/86)
The constellation Hydra is supposed to be a serpent. More about it -- when we come back. March 6 Hydra the Serpent The largest constellation is so narrow and faint that it's difficult to trace in the sky. It's the constellation Hydra -- a serpent -- mostly just a line of stars that stretches one-quarter of the way around the sky! In all this length, Hydra has only one bright star -- Alphard, the heart of the snake, a reddish star now visible in the east each evening. The constellation Hydra carries two smaller constellations with it around the sky. Crater the cup and Corvus the crow are seen perched on the back of Hydra. The cup really looks like a small cup or bowl, and the brighter crow looks like a lopsided square -- both in the southeast this month in mid-evening. According to Greek mythology, the sun-god Apollo one day sent his raven for a cup of fresh spring water. The raven went -- but when he got to the spring, he saw a fig tree just about to bear fruit. He decided to wait until the fruit ripened -- then he stayed a few more days until he'd eaten all the fruit. When the raven got around to filling his cup with water, he realized Apollo would be angry -- and then he noticed a water-serpent nearby. He grasped the snake in his claws and carried it to heaven -- where he explained to Apollo that the serpent had attacked him -- and that's what caused him to be late. But Apollo wasn't easily fooled. He was so angry that he flung the raven, the cup and the serpent out of heaven -- into the sky where we see them today. Script by Deborah Byrd. (c) Copyright 1985, 1986 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin