DRAGON, in astronomy. See DRACO.
DRAGON'S HEAD and TAIL (caput & cauda draconis), are the nodes of the planets; or the two points where, in the ecliptic is intersected by the orbits of the planets, and particularly that of the moon; making with it angles of five degrees and eighteen minutes. One of these points looks northward; the moon beginning then to have northward latitude, and the other southward, where she commences south. Thus her deviation from the ecliptic seems (according to the fancy of some) to make a figure like to that of a dragon, whose belly is where she has the greatest latitude; the intersection.
Dragon. section representing the head and tail, from which resemblance the denomination arises.
But note, that these points abide not always in one place, but have a motion of their own in the zodiac, and retrograde-wise 3 minutes 11 seconds per day; completing their circle in 18 years 225 days: so that the moon can be but twice in the ecliptic during her monthly period, but at all other times she will have a latitude or declination from the ecliptic.
It is about these points of intersection that all eclipses happen. They are usually denoted by these characters dragon's head, and dragon's tail.