Bright stars · Lyra
Vega
Alpha Lyrae
Details
Magnitude
0.03
Spectral type
A0V
Bayer
Alpha Lyrae
Distance
25 ly
A brilliant blue-white summer star and one of the corners of the Summer Triangle.
BeginnerWhat is it?
Vega is the fifth-brightest star in the sky and lies about 25 light-years away in the small constellation Lyra. It is nearly twice the mass of the Sun and about 40 times as luminous.
Why observe it?
Vega was one of the first stars ever photographed and, for a time, was used as the reference standard for the astronomical brightness scale.
What will I see?
Naked eye
A bright, steady blue-white star — the top-left of the Summer Triangle when facing overhead in northern summer.
Binoculars
Sharpens into a brilliant blue-white pinpoint. The tiny parallelogram of Lyra sits just below.
Reference imagery from long-exposure photography usually shows far more colour and structure than the human eye can see through a telescope.
Observing tips
- Best in northern-hemisphere summer, when it is nearly overhead.
- An excellent calibration anchor for the Finder — visible from most of the northern hemisphere for much of the year.
Interesting facts
- About 25 light-years away.
- One of the vertices of the Summer Triangle (with Altair and Deneb).
- In roughly 12,000 years it will be the northern pole star as Earth's axis precesses.