An ancient flying serpent soars high overhead this evening. It's
a zigzagging line of faint stars between the prominent
constellations Cygnus and Cassiopeia. It's high in the northeast
at nightfall, and passes high overhead a few hours later. The
star pattern is known as Lacerta, the lizard. A German
astronomer created the constellation several hundred years ago
to fill a gap between larger constellations. But thousands of
years earlier, the Chinese knew this group of stars as a flying
serpent. Their constellation included present-day Lacerta and a
portion of Cygnus. Lacerta certainly looks serpentine enough.
Its brightest stars form a short jagged line to the east of
Deneb, the bright "tail" of Cygnus, the swan. You need to look
carefully to find Lacerta. None of its stars is brighter than
about fourth magnitude, which means you need nice, dark skies to
find them. Lacerta's brightest star is Alpha Lacertae, near the
constellation's northern tip. It's a white star about 90 light-
years from Earth. Its color in