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A red giant star in the constellation Draco. In the sky, it appears to lie close to Draco's alpha star, Thuban, but being more distant than Thuban at 390 light years from Earth, and intrinsically less luminous, i Draconis appears rather less bright in the night sky. Both stars fall within the 'neck' of the Dragon, a narrow region of the constellation where it passes between Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.
i Draconis is a pulsating variable, whose physical structure shifts over a long and irregular timescale to cause fluctuations in its brightness. It can range between magnitudes +4.51 and +4.67 - always rather faint, but normally visible to the naked eye. Because of its pulsating nature, this red star has a variable designation, and is also known as CU Draconis.
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