The Constellation Lyra
Lyra is a northern summer constellation, which is highest in the midnight sky in the months around June. It is best known for its brightest star, Vega, which forms one vertex of the Summer Triangle asterism. Vega is the fourth brightest star in the whole sky, and defines the zero point of the magnitude system.
Lyra's other stars are all much fainter than Vega; none are brighter than third magnitude.
This area of the sky is home to the celebrated planetary nebula M57, the Ring Nebula, one of the brightest in the sky. It is also home to the globular cluster M56.
In Greek mythology, the lyre represented here was the first lyre ever made, belonging to Orpheus, the greatest musician of his age. In earlier times, the Arabs saw an eagle in the same sky area: the name of the star Vega means ‘the swooping eagle’ in Arabic.
Hover the pointer over the name of an object to highlight its position on the starchart to the right, or click to see more information.
| Stars | Open Clusters | Globular Clusters | Galaxies |
| Vega (mag 0.0) | NGC 6743 (mag 8.2) | Messier 56 (mag 8.4) | NGC 6703 (mag 11.3) |
| Sulafat (mag 3.2) | NGC 6791 (mag 9.5) | NGC 6710 (mag 12.8) | |
| Sheliak (mag 3.6) | NGC 6702 (mag 13.1) | ||
| R Lyr (mag 4.2) | NGC 6675 (mag 13.3) | ||
| δ²-Lyr (mag 4.3) | NGC 6792 (mag 13.4) | ||
| ζ¹-Lyr (mag 4.3) | NGC 6695 (mag 13.5) | ||
| κ-Lyr (mag 4.3) | NGC 6646 (mag 13.7) | ||
| θ-Lyr (mag 4.3) | NGC 6671 (mag 13.8) | ||
| η-Lyr (mag 4.4) | NGC 6688 (mag 13.9) | ||
| HIP 92088 (mag 4.8) | NGC 6640 (mag 14.2) | ||
| λ-Lyr (mag 4.9) | NGC 6657 (mag 14.2) | ||
| HIP 91919 (mag 5.0) | NGC 6700 (mag 14.2) | ||
| 16-Lyr (mag 5.0) | NGC 6713 (mag 14.2) | ||
| μ-Lyr (mag 5.1) | IC 1288 (mag 14.3) | ||
| ε²-Lyr (mag 5.2) | NGC 6606 (mag 14.4) | ||
| ν-Lyr (mag 5.2) | NGC 6665 (mag 14.6) | ||
| HIP 93017 (mag 5.2) | NGC 6685 (mag 14.7) | ||
| 17-Lyr (mag 5.2) | NGC 6663 (mag 14.8) | ||
| ι-Lyr (mag 5.2) | NGC 6662 (mag 14.9) | ||
| HIP 93256 (mag 5.3) | NGC 6686 (mag 14.9) | ||
| HIP 91926 (mag 5.4) | IC 4772 (mag 15.0) | ||
| ε²-Lyr (mag 5.4) | IC 1289 (mag 15.3) | ||
| HIP 91235 (mag 5.4) | IC 1296 (mag 15.4) | ||
| HIP 90923 (mag 5.5) | NGC 6740 (mag 15.5) | ||
| HIP 92831 (mag 5.5) | NGC 6612 (mag 15.6) | ||
| HIP 93843 (mag 5.5) | NGC 6745 (mag 16.3) | ||
| HIP 89482 (mag 5.5) | |||
| δ¹-Lyr (mag 5.6) | |||
| ζ²-Lyr (mag 5.6) | |||
| HIP 93718 (mag 5.6) |
