Starwatch: Lyra weaves quite a tale
The constellation Lyra is faint, but it contains Vega, one of the brightest stars in our Butler night sky. As soon as it gets dark enough after sunset, look for the brightest star you can see in the very high eastern sky. That's Vega, over 25 light-years away, or about 146 trillion miles distant. The light that we see from Vega tonight left that star in the year 2000 when Gladiator was the top movie on the silver screen.
Vega is also a celestial signpost in the heavens. It marks the direction that the Sun and our entire solar system are headed as we journey around the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. We're ripping along at over 434,000 mph! Despite that breakneck speed, it would still take nearly 500 million years to reach Vega, but that's not going to happen because Vega is racing around the Milky Way as well. It's an endless chase!
Vega serves as the brightest star in the small constellation Lyra the Harp. It's fairly easy to see in a reasonably dark sky. About all there is to Lyra is the bright star Vega, and a small parallelogram of much fainter stars just below and to the left of Vega. If you can make a harp out of that, more power to you. According to Greek and Roman legend, Lyra is a harp, or Lyre, given by the god Apollo to the famous poet and musician Orpheus. That isn’t the only story about Lyra however. Different ancient cultures have different stories. I really like the Chinese story about Lyra. I hope you will, too.
It goes like this. Once upon a time there was a young man named Tung Yung who was born into a wealthy family. Tung Yung’s early years were carefree, growing up in a castle won a huge estate. When he reached his teens though, hard times hit his family big time! There were severe droughts. Crops failed year after year and soon the family fortune had dwindled considerably. On top of that, a disease spread over the countryside and took the lives of all of his siblings, and his father also took ill. Tung Yung was the only one left who was physically able to bring home money for what was left of his family, his mother and ailing father. But there was no work, no jobs. Out of desperation he hung a sign over his head at the marketplace and sold himself off as a slave. When he was bought, Tung Yung was off to a grueling life of slavery, sending what little money he earned back to his folks.
He was forced to work in the fields from sunrise to sunset, and when he returned home to his one room hut, he was often too exhausted to fix himself dinner. Day after day after day, he went through this ordeal and soon his own health started to fail.
The Chinese god of the sun saw all of this from his perch in heaven and took great pity on Tung Yung. He sent his daughter Chih Nu, the goddess of weaving, to Tung Yung’s side in his hut to nurse him back to good health. She gave him some heavenly TLC. Soon his health returned and eventually Tung Yung married Chih Nu. They even had a son together.
While he was away at work, she stayed in the hut and used her godly talents to weave absolutely wonderful tapestries with her magic loom. She would then sell them for a handsome price at the market. She soon raised enough money to buy Tung Yung out of slavery. As her tapestry business grew, more and more money was coming into the family and soon Tung Yung and Chih Nu had their own farm.
A few years later when they were living the good life, Chih Nu realized that her mission was done and she was to return to heaven. After a tearful farewell, she climbed back into heaven and as she did, all the stars brightened and one brand new very bright star appeared. The star we now call Vega was the new light created by Chih Nu. Next to Vega are four stars shaped like a parallelogram, which makes up Chih Nu’s magic loom. How’s that for a well-woven tale?!
For extra credit, see if you can spot the Ring Nebula, formally known as Messier object 57, or M57 for short. The Ring Nebula is considered a planetary nebula. Despite that name, M57 has nothing to do with a planet but rather a dying star, burping out what’s left of its gases before it becomes a white dwarf. It’s over 2000 light-years away and with a moderate to larger visual telescope it resembles a tiny ghostly smoke ring. If you view it with a small photographic telescope like a ZWO SeeStar S50 or S30, You’ll actually “see” it better in the photographs and you’ll see its multiple colors. These new small smart photographs telescopes are less than $600 and revolutionizing backyard astronomy. I highly recommend them!
Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is also the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and at adventurepublications.net. Contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.
