The figure in the sky: north is up, east is to the left. Larger dots are brighter stars.

Constellation

Lyra

The shape: a small parallelogram below bright Vega.

The lyre belonged to the singer Orpheus, whose music moved even stones. Its star Vega is one of the brightest in the summer sky and, together with Deneb and Altair, forms the Summer Triangle. In 12,000 years Vega will be our pole star.

The stars of the figure

From bright to faint. Brightness is given in magnitudes (mag): the smaller the number, the brighter the star.

Vega · 0.03 mag
Sulafat · 3.25 mag
Sheliak · 3.52 mag
ZetaLyr · 4.3 mag
DeltaLyr · 4.3 mag
EpsLyr · 4.6 mag

Shooting stars from the constellation Lyra

Lyrids: these shooting stars seem to come from this part of the sky. More under Meteor showers.

In the 3D model

In the 3D model, under “Explore”, the sky dome shows when the constellation Lyra can be seen above Switzerland. “Constellations in 3D” shows how far apart its stars really are.

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