Generalities: it is a very small constellation of the northern sky of great interest. It contains the  very bright Vega. The transit at midnight takes place in July.

Origins and mythology: it represents the musical instrument given by Apollo to Orpheus, the poet who had fallen in love with  Euridice.

Stars: the Lyre is unmistakable for the presence of Vega, the fifth star of the whole sky, of white color and magnitude 0.04. This bright star is 27 light-years far from us. Moreover other  3 stars are present  under magnitude 4. The star beta is famous for being the prototype of a category of variable stars and the star epsilon  is very beautiful by a telescope because it is made up of two stars, each one of which  is double. Epsilon Lyrae is therefore a quadruple system, which can be observed by amateur telescopes.

Table of stars brighter than magnitude 3.5
 

Star	Proper name	Magnitude	Spectrum	Colour	Distance (light-years)	Notes
Alpha	Vega	0.04	A0	white	27	5th star in the sky
Gamma	Sulafat	3.24	B9	white	192
Beta	Sheliak	3.4 (variable max)	B7	white-blue	300

Other objects: the most peculiar object is the planetary nebula M57, said "ring nebula"  for its ring-shaped form.A globular cluster, M56, is also present.

Go back to constellations index
 

Go back to Home Page