Lyra, resembles the shape of a Harp, when stars in this constellation are imaginarily connected, as per Indian mythology!
Where should I see…
Hercules, is the constellation which is towards west
of Lyra constellation. If you move your eyes towards east, you will see another constellation named Cygnus. In the North and South of Lyra, you will find Draco and Vulpecula constellations respectively. Lyra is halfway between celestial equator and North Pole, and so is fully part of Northern Hemisphere.
It covers up 286 square degree area of the sky. Area wise it is 58th largest constellation in the sky.
When and What can I see…
We can gaze at this beautiful harp shape of Lyra
constellation from March to October, as seen from India.
All you need is your naked eyes other than clear skies to see 80 stars of this constellations, as they are the one which are brighter than the lower limit of our naked eyes (i.e. 6.5 apparent magnitude) to see faintest stars.. The brightest star of this constellation is Vega. The Hindu name of this star is Abhijit which is also a Nakshatra (Lunar Mansion).
Constellations are made up of single, binary (apparent and absolute), multiple and variable stars. Out of total 80 stars of different types, here is the list of 20 brightest stars as per their nature:
| Binary / Multiple Star system |
Variable Stars |
Binary and Variable Stars |
Single stars |
| 3 |
3 |
Vega |
4 |
| – |
– |
Sulafat |
– |
| – |
– |
Sheliak |
– |
| – |
– |
7 |
– |
| 3 |
3 |
10 |
4 |
Mythology stories…
As per Hindu mythology, there are no such known
stories for this constellation.
Deep Sky Objects…
IC 1296 || Spiral Galaxy
M56 or NGC 6779 || Globular Cluster
NGC 6745 || Irregular Galaxy
All the stars that we see naked eyes, all belong to our own, Milky way galaxy (Akash Ganga Tara Vishv). Bright stars can be seen naked eye and faint one through telescope. But the curtain of sky that we see in 2D is actually a huge universe we are talking about, with 3 dimension. There are many nebulous objects visible in every constellations. They differ widely by distances and nature. Like Emission Nebula, Reflecting Nebula, Absorption Nebula, Star Birth Nebula, Supernova Remnants (SNR) and Open Stars cluster which are within the disk of our own Milky Way galaxy. Globular cluster are also found, which are in the halo of our galaxy and some most distant objects like galaxies are also visible through telescope. Such objects are defined as “Deep Sky Objects”.
In this constellation there are 42 such different types of Deep Sky Objects observed. Below is the list of 20 brightest Deep Sky Objects:
NGC 6791 || Open Cluster
M57 or Ring Nebula || Planetary Nebula
| |
Galaxy |
Open Cluster |
Globular Cluster |
Nebula |
Supernova Remnant |
|
| Naked eye visibility |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
|
|
| Visible through Telescope |
15 |
2 |
M 56 |
M 57 Ring Nebula |
– |
|
|
| – |
– |
– |
1 |
– |
|
|
|
| |
15 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
– |
|
