Science & history · Constellation guide
Lyra, the lyre
Lyra is small but easy to find, because it holds Vega, the fifth-brightest star. Beside Vega a little figure of fainter stars makes the frame of the lyre.
How to spot it: Brilliant Vega, with a small lyre of fainter stars beside it. Source (opens in a new tab)
The lyre of Orpheus
In Greek myth, Ridpath explains (opens in a new tab), this is the first lyre, made by Hermes from a tortoise shell and later given to Orpheus, whose music could charm rocks and rivers. Lyra is only the 52nd constellation by size.
The Ring Nebula
About halfway between the two stars at the bottom of the lyre, Sheliak and Sulafat (opens in a new tab), lies the Ring Nebula, a planetary nebula about 2,000 light-years away. A moderately sized telescope shows the ring.
In another tradition
In the oldest Chinese poetry the three stars around Vega were the Weaving Sisters.
Where on Earth, and when
The whole key pattern rises from anywhere north of about 51°S.
South of about 57°S, none of it rises.
North of about 57°N, the whole key pattern never sets.
Its middle climbs at least 20° high, the finder's threshold for a suggestion, from anywhere north of about 35°S.
It is highest in the evening sky, at about 9 p.m. local time, in mid-August, from either hemisphere, wherever it rises. With daylight saving time, that is nearer 10 p.m. on the clock.
Worked out by this site from the Bright Star Catalogue, for a flat, clear horizon. Hills, buildings, haze and city light all cut into this; the air also lifts objects near the horizon by about half a degree. For your own place and night, use the sky finder.
Sources
- History Ian Ridpath, Star Tales: Lyra (opens in a new tab) for the myth and its size
- Astronomy NASA Hubble, Messier 57 (the Ring Nebula) (opens in a new tab) for the Ring Nebula