|
Translate this page into:
         
|
It is said that Hermes (Mercury) took the shell of a tortoise, poked holes on two sides of the rim, and strung thin strips of cow gut between them, and the lyre, the first ancient form of the harp, was born. The instrument was traded to Apollo in exchange for some cattle, and Apollo ultimately gave it to Orpheus, who became the most skilled and famous musician of the ancient world. His music contained a powerful magic that charmed everyone that heard it. It even charmed the rocks and the trees. Travelling with Jason and the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece, his music was even powerful enough to save them all from the song of the Sirens. When Orpheus died, the Muses asked Zeus (Jupiter) to place the lyre in the sky, to honour the god-like music it produced. It was carried up to the heavens in the beak of a vulture, which is the way it is depicted in many older star maps, such as Johann Bode's Uranographia of 1801, pictured below.
The constellation Lyra contains the fifth brightest star in the sky, Vega, with a magnitude of 0.03. It is only 25.3 light years away, and far outshines any other star anywhere near it, so it is easy to find. Vega is Arabic for vulture. Vega is also the star from which the first communication from extraterrestrial life was received in the famous book and movie by Carl Sagan, Contact.
The second brightest star is Sheliak, Arabic for harp. The third brightest is Sulafat, Arabic for tortoise, from which he first harp was formed.
Lyra contains two Messier objects. The first is M56, a beautiful globular star cluster, 32,900 light years away, and 85 light years in diameter, shown below.
Lyra also contains one of the most accessible planetary nebulas in the sky, M57, also known as the Ring Nebula. It is usually one of the first deep sky objects found by amateur telescopes, as it is easy to find, halfway between the stars Sheliak and Sulafat. The photo below shows how M57 looks through a backyard scope.
|
|
|
|
