Now that we have that waning full moon out of the evening sky the official summer stargazing can really get going. If you don’t have access to the full sky map that was in last week’s Starwatch you can get a copy from my Web site: www.lynchandthestars.com.
In the western half of the sky, early in the evening, we still have mainly spring constellations such as Leo, Virgo and others. For the most part, they aren’t all that bright and memorable, but there’s good stuff coming up in the east.
The prime summer constellations are on the rise, with the constellation Lyra, the Harp, leading the way. The best way to find Lyra is to find its brightest star, Vega. The best way to find Vega is to find the Summer Triangle.
When it’s finally dark enough after 10 p.m., look for the three brightest stars you can find in the eastern half of the heavens. They’ll be arranged in a giant triangle. That’s it, the Summer Triangle. You should have no doubt in your mind as to whether you picked the right three stars because they have no close rivals for brightness in that part of the sky. All three stars are the brightest stars in their own respective constellations.
The star on the lower left is Deneb, the brightest star in the constellation Cygnus, the Swan. Deneb is at the tail of the southward flying swan. The star on the lower right is Altair, marking the heart of Aquila, the Eagle. That’s about all we can see of Aquila right now. You’ll either have to wait until later in the night or later in the summer to see the rest of the great eagle, when the night-time side of the Earth turns into that direction in space.
The highest and brightest star of the Summer Triangle is Vega. Not only is Vega the brightest shiner in the summer trio, it is the third brightest star available in the Western Washington sky throughout the entire year. Vega also was made famous by the movie “Contact,” with Jodie Foster, when she and her colleagues made electronic contact with an alien civilization on a planet orbiting Vega.
In real life, Vega is a star almost 2.5 million miles in diameter, nearly three times the size of the sun. Vega is a much warmer star than our sun, however, with a surface temperature exceeding 16,000 degrees.
The reason Vega is so bright in our sky is because it kicks out more than 50 times the light our sun does and it’s a relatively close star. Vega is 25 light-years away, which works out to about 145 trillion miles, which, believe it or not, is considered to be a nearby star. The light we see from Vega this summer left that bright star shortly after Ronald Reagan became president in 1981.
Scientifically, the most interesting thing about Vega is that in the last part of the 20th century, both ground and space based telescopes discovered that Vega has a distinct dust disk surrounding it. That may be a sign of a developing solar system. In fact, there may already be planets circling Vega. Stay tuned, because astronomers have already detected more than 200 planets orbiting other stars, and new discoveries are coming fast.
Vega is also the brightest star in the small constellation Lyra. About all there is to Lyra is Vega and four dimmer stars that hang below Vega in the shape of a small parallelogram. With your imagination in overdrive, you may be able to visualize it as a harp, but if you think you hear music it may be time to head inside for some shut-eye.
According to Greek mythology, the constellation signifies the harp owned by Orpheus, the great musician who played his harp so well that he was able to charm the heck out of any person, animal or monster. He used his harp to attract the love of his life, Eurydice, whom he eventually married.
Unfortunately, his wife died at a young age, and Orpheus fell apart at the seams.
Hades, the god of the underworld, felt so sorry for him that he made a deal to pull Eurydice out of the realm of the dead. The condition that Hades made with Orpheus was that he could lead her from the underworld, but he was not to turn and look at her until they were completely out.
As easy as that requirement seemed, Orpheus just couldn’t resist turning at the last moment to see his wife. He blew it. As soon as his eyes made contact with her, Eurydice was banished forever from his sight. Orpheus died a very broken man. Not even his own harp playing could bring him out of his funk.
When he died, the rest of the gods of Mount Olympus took pity and placed his magical harp among the stars to make never-ending heavenly music.
Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and author of the new book “Washington Starwatch,” available at bookstores and on his Web site, www.lynchandthestars.com.
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