The constellation Lyra is faint, but it contains one of the brightest stars in the sky, Vega.

As soon as it gets dark enough after sunset, around 10 p.m., look for the brightest star you can see almost directly overhead, high in the southeastern sky. That's Vega, a star that's over 25 light-years away, or about 145 trillion miles distant.

The light that we see from Vega tonight left that star close to the time Ronald Reagan was elected president.

To see the rest of the constellation Lyra is fairly easy, but you have to have a reasonably dark sky, at least a little ways from heavy city lighting. If you face southeast and gaze high up at Vega, look for a small parallelogram, just to the lower right of Vega. That's all there is to Lyra.

According to Greek and Roman legend, Lyra is supposed to be a lyre or harp, given by the god Apollo to the famous poet and musician Orpheus.

The story goes that Orpheus tried to use this magic harp to get his wife, who died suddenly, out of the underworld. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to bail her out of the hereafter.

After a brief period of mourning, the handsome and charming Orpheus entered the dating world. At one time this stud had more than six girlfriends at the same time. As it turned out, these ladies found out about each other, and they all ganged up on Orpheus and did him in.

One of the scorned women grabbed his harp out of his arms and flung it to the sky. Before gravity took over, dooming the harp to destruction, the gods saw the magical harp in flight and rescued it. They then lifted the harp even higher and placed it permanently as the constellation we see today.

That isn't the only story about Lyra, though. Different ancient cultures have different stories for the constellations. The Chinese have a completely different version of Lyra's tale.

The story 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 with a huge backyard. 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 down to small change. On top of that, a disease spread over the countryside and took the lives of all his siblings and his father also took ill.

Tung Yung was the only one left who was physically able to bring in money for what was left of his family, his mother and his ailing father. But there was no work, no jobs.

Out of desperation, he hung a sign over his head at the market place and sold himself off as a slave. When he was bought, he sent the money to his folks and Tung Yung was off to a grueling life of slavery.

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 story goes on to tell how the sun king in heaven saw all this and took great pity on Tung Yung. He sent his daughter Chih Nu, the goddess of weaving, to Tung Yung's side to nurse him back to good health.

She gave him some heavenly TLC, supper every night, and had his bed ready for him. 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. Now there's a well-woven tale.

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio on Minneapolis and author of the new book,. "Pennsylvania Starwatch," available at bookstores and at his Web site www.lynchandthestars.com