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Far from any lights, the sky fills with stars. Drawn from real star positions; bigger dots are brighter stars. See it from a city or the suburbs in the app.

✨ Constellation

Lyra

The Lyre: small, but home to Vega, one of the brightest stars in the sky.

Name means: The Lyre (a small harp)
Best seen: August evenings
Where to see it: The northern half of Earth, and the tropics south of the equator
Brightest star: Vega
Stars in the pattern: 6

Did you know?

Vega is one corner of the Summer Triangle, with Deneb in Cygnus and Altair in Aquila.
About 12,000 years ago Vega was the pole star, and it will be again in about 13,000 years.
The Ring Nebula lies between its two lower stars.
The Lyrid meteor shower seems to come from here every April.

In this part of the sky

Ring Nebula A glowing smoke ring blown off by a dying star. Cygnus The Swan, flying along the Milky Way. Its brightest stars form the Northern Cross.

More NASA photos of LyraStraight from NASA’s image library, in the app

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All of night sky

Orion The Hunter, with three bright stars in a row for his belt. Ursa Major The Great Bear, home of the Big Dipper. Ursa Minor The Little Bear, with Polaris at the tip of its tail. Cassiopeia A bright W of five stars, named after a boastful queen. Scorpius The Scorpion, with red Antares at its heart. Leo The Lion, whose head is a backwards question mark of stars.

Facts: Star patterns: d3-celestial (IAU figures, Hipparcos star data). Stories: traditional Greek and Roman myths. Open Lyra in the app.