Rastaban and Eltanin belong to constellation Draco

The stars stay fixed relative to each other. So it's easy to use stars you do know to find stars you don't know.

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 ...