Constellation of the Month: Lyra (the Lyre)

 

Lyra is a small constellation in the northern night sky, crossing the meridian in mid-evening during the month of August.  It is dominated by the first-magnitude star Vega, which along with Altair (of Aquila) and Deneb (of Cygnus) form the "Summer Triangle" of readily discernible stars.  For those living north of the Equator, Vega is visible in the evening throughout much of the year but it's the summertime in which its constellation, Lyra, is more easily seen as it is highest up from the horizon. The constellation is most easily pictured as a parallelogram of nondescript stars with that very-bright Vega...relatively close to us at only 25 light-years distance...near its northwestern corner.  On the south side of the constellation is the Messier deep-space object M57, also known as the Ring Nebula and one of the more picturesque sights in the night sky...naturally, you need a telescope to see it, so why not just take a gander off the Internet instead?  The fastest way to pinpoint Lyra in the night sky is to find those three stars in the Summer Triangle...Vega is the brightest and is the one north and west of the other two.

Next month I'll pick another constellation to discuss...