Lyra: The Celestial Harp and Vega

Lyra may be one of the smallest constellations in the sky, but it punches far above its weight. Anchored by Vega, the fifth-brightest star visible from Earth, this compact constellation contains a famous planetary nebula, a celebrated double-double star system, and a fascinating eclipsing binary. Lyra also carries one of the most poignant stories in Greek mythology. Find Vega and Lyra in seconds by opening StarGlobe and pointing your phone upward on a summer evening.

How to Find Lyra

Locating Lyra is effortless because Vega is so bright. On summer evenings in the Northern Hemisphere, look nearly straight overhead for a brilliant blue-white star. That is Vega. From mid-northern latitudes, Vega passes almost directly through the zenith in July and August. It is the westernmost star of the Summer Triangle, along with Deneb in Cygnus and Altair in Aquila.

The rest of Lyra is a small parallelogram of four fainter stars just to the southeast of Vega. The entire constellation covers only 286 square degrees, ranking it 52nd in size, but what it lacks in area it makes up for in interesting objects. The parallelogram is easy to spot under reasonably dark skies and serves as a guide to the constellation's deep sky treasures.

Vega: The Standard Star

Vega shines at magnitude 0.03 and sits 25 light-years from Earth. It is an A0V main-sequence star, meaning it is a hydrogen-burning star roughly twice the mass and 40 times the luminosity of the Sun. Vega played a foundational role in the development of astronomical photometry. For much of the twentieth century, it served as the zero-point calibration star for the magnitude system, meaning all other stellar brightnesses were measured relative to Vega.

In 1983, the IRAS satellite discovered an excess of infrared radiation around Vega, indicating a disk of dust orbiting the star. This was one of the first debris disks ever detected around a main-sequence star and suggested the possible presence of a planetary system. Vega rotates rapidly and is viewed nearly pole-on from Earth, which makes it appear brighter and bluer than it would from other viewing angles.

Due to the precession of Earth's axis, Vega will become the northern pole star in approximately 12,000 years. It last held that position around 12,000 BC, and it will do so again around the year 13,700 AD. For more about how Earth's axial wobble affects the sky, see our article on sidereal time.

Epsilon Lyrae: The Double-Double

Epsilon Lyrae is one of the most celebrated multiple star systems in the sky. To the naked eye, it appears as a single star near Vega. Keen-eyed observers or those using binoculars can split it into two components, Epsilon 1 and Epsilon 2, separated by about 3.5 arcminutes. The real surprise comes when you turn a telescope on each component: both Epsilon 1 and Epsilon 2 are themselves double stars, each pair separated by about 2.3 arcseconds. Splitting all four components is a classic test of telescope optics and atmospheric seeing.

This system is a genuine gravitationally bound quadruple star. The two wide pairs orbit each other with an estimated period of hundreds of thousands of years. If you enjoy testing your equipment and observing skills, our double stars guide lists many more rewarding targets.

The Ring Nebula M57

Between the two southern stars of Lyra's parallelogram lies M57, the Ring Nebula. This is one of the most observed planetary nebulae in the sky and a favorite target for amateur astronomers. Through a small telescope, M57 appears as a tiny, ghostly smoke ring. Larger telescopes reveal more detail in the ring structure, and long-exposure photographs show the faint central star that shed the nebula's glowing shells of gas.

M57 lies about 2,300 light-years from Earth and has a diameter of roughly one light-year. The central star, a white dwarf with a surface temperature exceeding 100,000 Kelvin, illuminates the expanding gas shells through ultraviolet radiation. The nebula is a preview of our own Sun's distant future: in about five billion years, the Sun will shed its outer layers in a similar fashion. For an introduction to finding objects like M57, consult our Messier objects guide.

Beta Lyrae: An Eclipsing Binary

Beta Lyrae (Sheliak) is a fascinating eclipsing binary star system in which two stars orbit so closely that they exchange material. The system varies in brightness between magnitudes 3.3 and 4.4 over a period of about 12.9 days. The stars are so close together that tidal forces have distorted them into egg-like shapes, and a stream of gas flows from one star to the other, forming an accretion disk.

Monitoring Beta Lyrae's brightness variations is straightforward with the naked eye by comparing it to nearby stars of known magnitude. It provides an excellent introduction to variable star observing, requiring no equipment beyond your eyes and a simple chart.

Mythology of Lyra

In Greek mythology, Lyra represents the lyre of Orpheus, the legendary musician whose playing was so beautiful it could charm animals, move rocks, and divert rivers. When his beloved Eurydice died, Orpheus traveled to the underworld to bring her back. His music so moved Hades that the god of the dead agreed to release Eurydice, on the condition that Orpheus not look back as they ascended. At the last moment, Orpheus glanced behind him, and Eurydice was lost forever.

After Orpheus's death, Zeus placed his lyre among the stars. The constellation has been recognized since antiquity and was included in Ptolemy's original list of 48 constellations. Many other cultures recognized this group of stars as well, often associating the pattern with birds or musical instruments. Read more celestial stories in our constellation mythology collection.

The Lyrid Meteor Shower

The Lyrids are one of the oldest recorded meteor showers, with observations dating back over 2,600 years to ancient China. The shower peaks around April 22 each year, producing about 15 to 20 meteors per hour under ideal conditions. The Lyrids appear to radiate from a point near Vega, although the meteors can appear anywhere in the sky. For comprehensive viewing tips, see our meteor shower guide.

Observing Tips

Lyra is best viewed from June through October. Vega is visible even from heavily light-polluted cities, making it an easy starting point for urban stargazers. The parallelogram stars require somewhat darker skies to appreciate, and M57 needs at least a small telescope. Epsilon Lyrae is a wonderful binocular target for splitting the wide pair, and a telescope of 75mm aperture or more will split the close pairs on nights of steady seeing.

Use StarGlobe to locate Vega, then explore the compact treasures of Lyra, from the double-double to the Ring Nebula. Despite its small footprint, this constellation offers some of the most satisfying observations available to amateur astronomers.