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Jimmy Westlake

Jimmy Westlake's Celestial News column appears Tuesdays in the Steamboat Today.

What has nine heads, poisonous blood, deadly breath, and stretches nearly one-third of the way around the whole sky? It's the dreaded sea serpent known as the Hydra, defeated by Hercules in the second of his twelve labors and now forming the largest of our 88 constellations.

Hydra is one of the 48 original Greek constellations, passed down to us from centuries ago. It has always been associated with the legendary sea serpent that battled with Hercules in the swamps of Lerna. This beast had numerous heads that, when cut off, would immediately sprout back as one or more new heads. One head was even immortal and could not be cut off. How does one defeat such a monster? Hercules managed to do it by severing a head with his sword and then scorching the wound with a burning tree before new heads could sprout. He then buried the immortal head under a large boulder long enough to pierce the monster through the heart and kill it. All the while, Cancer the Crab was nipping at the strong man's toes as a distraction.

Hydra is not only the largest of the 88 constellations, but it is also the longest, stretching more than 100 degrees across our southern sky on spring evenings. To locate Hydra from stem to stern, you'll need to find a location away from the city lights with a clear view of the southern sky, from southeast to southwest. By 10 p.m. in late April, all of the sea serpent's body should be in view. You can locate Hydra's immortal head high in the southwest sky, just below the bright planet Saturn and the faint constellation of Cancer the Crab. Look for a distinctive little pattern of five stars that resembles a letter "J." From his head, connect the star dots to the south and east along the snake's twisting body to locate Hydra's brightest star, an orange colored gem that sits all alone in a rather blank patch of sky. Representing the heart of the sea serpent, this star is named Alphard, meaning, "the solitary one," in reference to its apparent isolation from other bright stars. Continue connecting the star dots to the south and east, passing beneath the prominent kite-shaped star pattern of Corvus the Crow. The star marking the end of the serpent's tail is found about one hand span below Virgo's bright blue star Spica.

Once you've successfully located Hydra from head to tail, perhaps you'll feel the elation that Hercules must have felt when he, too, conquered this monster.

Professor Jimmy Westlake teaches astronomy and physics at Colorado Mountain College's Alpine Campus. He is an avid astronomer whose photographs and articles have been published on the websites of CNN.com, NASA's "Astronomy Picture of the Day," Spaceweather.com, Space.com, Discover.com, and in Sky & Telescope, Astronomy, Night Sky, Discover, and WeatherWise magazines. His "Celestial News" article appears weekly in the local Steamboat Pilot newspaper. He also records a radio spot called the "Cosmic Moment" for the local radio station "The Range" at 107.3 FM.