This is the third-smallest constellation in the sky, with no
stars brighter than fourth magnitude, but it was well-known to
the Greeks. Aratus described it as ‘alone, without a bow’ since
there is no sign of the archer who might have shot it. The
constellation’s brightest star is Gamma Sagittae, magnitude 3.5,
which Ptolemy described as lying on the arrow-head; the atlases
of Flamsteed and Bode extended the shaft to the star Eta
Sagittae, as in the illustration below, a star that Ptolemy did
not list.  Sagitta flying near the feet of Vulpecula, from the
Atlas Coelestis of John Flamsteed (1729). The constellation’s
brightest star, Gamma Sagittae, lies where the right forepaw of
Vulpecula touches the arrow’s shaft.  There are at least three
different stories to account for the arrow in the sky.
Eratosthenes said it was the projectile with which Apollo killed
the Cyclopes because they made the thunderbolts of Zeus that
struck down Apollo’s son, Asclepius. According to this story,
Asclepius was a great healer wit