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Jimmy Westlake

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

Steamboat Springs — 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 12 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 many 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 can you defeat such a monster?

Hercules managed to defeat the Hydra by severing a head with his sword and then scorching the wound with a burning tree stump 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 also is the longest, stretching more than 100 degrees across our southern sky on spring evenings.

To find 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 11 p.m. in early April, all the Sea Serpent's body should be in view. You can find Hydra's immortal head high in the southwest sky, not far below the bright planet Saturn and the faint constellation of Cancer the Crab. Look for a small, distinctive pattern of five stars that curls around to form 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. This is Alphard, the "Solitary One," referring to its apparent isolation from other bright stars. It represents the heart of the monster. 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 same satisfaction that Hercules must have felt when he, too, defeated 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 Web sites of CNN.com, NASA's "Astronomy Picture of the Day" Web site, Spaceweather.com, Space.com, Discover.com, MSNBC.com, NationalGeographic.com, and in Sky & Telescope, Astronomy, Night Sky, Discover, and WeatherWise magazines. His "Celestial News" article appears weekly in the Steamboat Pilot & Today. His "Cosmic Moment" radio spots can be heard on local radio station KFMU. Also, check out www.jwestlake.com.