Lyra
Origin
In Greek mythology, Lyra represents the lyre of Orpheus.
In Wales, Lyra is known as King Arthur's Harp (Talyn Arthur), and King David's harp. The Persian Hafiz called it the Lyre of Zurah. It has been called the Manger of the Infant Saviour, Praesepe Salvatoris. In Australian Aboriginal astronomy, Lyra is known by the Boorong people in Victoria as the Malleefowl constellation. Lyra was known as Urcuchillay by the Incas and was worshipped as an animal deity.
Bright Stars
The brightest star in Lyra is Vega. Vega is the fifth-brightest star in the sky and part of the asterism known as the Summer Triangle (along with Deneb and Altair). Because of the precession of Earth’s rotational axis, Vega will become the North Star around 14000 CE.
Epsilon Lyrae is a famous star known as the double double. Through binoculars, Epsilon Lyrae is a nicely spaced double star. Through a telescope at moderate magnification, each of those two stars is revealed to be a double star as well, hence the double double!
Photo of the constellation Lyra produced by NOIRLab in collaboration with Eckhard Slawik, a German astrophotographer.
The annotations are from a standardized set of 88 western IAU constellations and stick figures from Sky & Telescope. Please find here a non-annotated version of the image.
Credit: E. Slawik/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Zamani
Latin name
Lyra
English name
The Lyre
Pronunciation
LIE-rah
Abbreviation
Lyr
Notable Objects
The Ring Nebula (Messier 57) is one of the most famous planetary nebulae in the night sky. Through a small telescope, the small gray ring is clearly visible. Through larger telescopes, you can glimpse the white dwarf at the center of the ring. Long-exposure photographs reveal the brilliant colors of the Ring Nebula.
Messier 56 is a globular cluster in Lyra. Messier 56 contains a total mass about 230,000 times that of our Sun and is about 33,000 light-years from Earth.
