A
small but beautiful constellation, Lyra is one of the brightest in the northern summer
sky and is
flanked by Cygnus & Hercules
Contains the brilliant blue star Vega (Alpha Lyrae - pronounced ‘vēē’ ga –
Arabic, ‘the swooping’),
the fifth brightest in the sky at .03 magnitude
Vega forms one side of the ‘summer triangle’ asterism along with Deneb (Alpha Cygni)
& Altair
(Alpha Aquilae). This is a beautiful sight in our Maine sky
Sheliak (Beta Lyrae – Arabic, ‘harp’) is a ‘contact binary’ star system & the
prototype eclipsing
binary.
The Double Double (Epsilon Lyrae) is a quadruple star system whose components are
also doubles – a
terrific telescopic view and a good test of optics
Contains M57, the Ring Nebula – a planetary nebula and M56 a globular cluster