Explore the constellation Lyra with Kochava Yerushalmit's Sky Safari - 2008August04

1. Sky Safari of the Constellation Lyra

2. Labelled All-sky View

3. All-sky View with meteor Aug 3, 08

4. Labelled all-sky View with meteor Aug 3, 08

5. Open cluster NGC 6791 – D1 hm Distance 17,000 LY Diameter 75 LY Discovered by Friedrich Winnecke in 1853 Reddish star at top right is variable star U Lyrae, a carbon star and long-term Mira-type variable, distance 160 LY.

6. Open cluster NGC 6791 – D2 wf Distance 17,000 LY Diameter 75 LY Cluster faintly visible at center Reddish carbon star U Lyrae visible above/right of cluster

7. Open cluster NGC 6791 – D1 wf Distance 17,000 LY Diameter 75 LY Cluster faintly visible at center Bright star right of center is Theta Lyr (mag 4.4, type K0 orange giant, distance 770 LY) At top right is Eta Lyrae (aka Aladfar, mag 4.4, type B2 blue giant, distance 1000 LY)

8. Vega (Alpha Lyrae) – D2 wf imaged by Ricky Ford Mag 0.3, type A0 white star, distance 25 LY Absolute magnitude about 60 times as bright as the sun, size about 3 times as large as the sun, age about 1 billion years. Surrounded by a dusty disk where planets might be forming. Has four faint companions, but they might be optical companions (background stars). Due to precession, Vega will be our north star in 12,000 years.

9. Open cluster Stephenson 1 – D2 hm Distance 1000 LY Diameter 5 LY Center of cluster seen in D2 hm, with a slight glow from Delta 2 Lyrae at the left

10. Open cluster Stephenson 1 – D1 hm Distance 1000 LY Diameter 5 LY All of cluster seen between the two Delta Lyrae stars. Delta 2 Lyrae at left (mag 4.2, type M4 red giant, distance 900 LY) Delta 1 Lyrae at right (mag 5.6, type B2 blue giant, distance 1080 LY) The two stars are not related to each other but might be outlying members of the cluster.

11. Open cluster Stephenson 1 – D2 wf Distance 1000 LY Diameter 5 LY All of cluster seen between the two Delta Lyrae stars. Delta 2 Lyrae at left (mag 4.2, type M4 red giant, distance 900 LY) Delta 1 Lyrae at right (mag 5.6, type B2 blue giant, distance 1080 LY)

12. Open cluster Stephenson 1 – D1 wf Distance 1000 LY Diameter 5 LY Cluster faintly seen at center between the two Delta Lyrae stars. Bright star at right is Zeta Lyrae – actually a double star (Zeta 1 is mag 4.3, type A white, distance 154 LY; Zeta 2 is mag 5.7, type F0 light yellow, distance 150 LY)

13. Epsilon Lyrae “the double double” – D1 hm imaged by Ricky Ford Distance 160 LY Epsilon 1 (mag 4.7) at top, Epsilon 2 (mag 4.6) below it. The two are about ¼ LY apart, and orbit each other very slowly over hundreds of thousands of years. Each of these is actually a very close double star. In each pair the members are about 150 AU apart. Orbital cycle of Epsilon 1 is 1000 years, orbital cycle of Epsilon 2 is 600 years.

14. Carbon star T Lyrae – D2 hm Aka Hipparcos 90883, mag 7.6, type C8 carbon star, distance 2000 LY Star towards the end of its lifetime, where all of its hydrogen has been fused into helium, and its helium has been fused into carbon. The red color is due to “filtering” of the star’s light by carbon compounds in its outer atmosphere.

15. Carbon star T Lyrae – D1 hm Aka Hipparcos 90883, mag 7.6, type C8 carbon star, distance 2000 LY The red color is due to “filtering” of the star’s light by carbon compounds in its outer atmosphere.

16. Carbon star T Lyrae – D2 wf Aka Hipparcos 90883, mag 7.6, type C8 carbon star, distance 2000 LY The red color is due to “filtering” of the star’s light by carbon compounds in its outer atmosphere.

17. Carbon star T Lyrae – D1 wf Aka Hipparcos 90883, mag 7.6, type C8 carbon star, distance 2000 LY T Lyrae faintly seen at center. Bright star at top is Alpha Lyrae (Vega).

18. Variable star RR Lyrae animation by Ronald B Aka HD 182989, type F5 yellow-white, distance 750 LY Varies from mag 7 to mag 8 in cycle of 13.6 hrs. Prototype of RR Lyrae variables, a type of pulsating variable star similar to Cepheids but much fainter. Good standard candles (when visible) because their absolute magnitude is always around 0.5.

19. Globular cluster M56 – D2 hm Distance 32,000 LY Diameter 50 LY Mass of 200,000 solar masses Discovered by Charles Messier in 1779

20. Globular cluster M56 – D1 hm Distance 32,000 LY Diameter 50 LY Mass of 200,000 solar masses Discovered by Charles Messier in 1779

21. Globular cluster M56 – D2 wf Distance 32,000 LY Diameter 50 LY Mass of 200,000 solar masses Red star at top right is HD 180450 (mag 5.9, type M0 red giant, distance 1380 LY)

22. Lenticular galaxy NGC 6703 – D2 hm Distance about 100 million LY Diameter around 70,000 LY Discovered by Heinrich Louis d’Arrest in 1863.

23. Elliptical galaxy NGC 6702 – D2 hm Elliptical galaxy NGC 6702 seen at top left. Distance about 200 million LY Diameter around 100,000 LY Discovered by Heinrich Louis d’Arrest in 1863. Had a supernova in 2002.

24. Galaxies NGC 6702 & 6703 – D1 hm Elliptical galaxy NGC 6702 at top right, lenticular galaxy NGC 6703 at bottom center. Bright star at top left is HD 174367 (mag 8.1, type K2 orange giant, distance 3000 LY)

25. Galaxies NGC 6702 & 6703 – D2 wf Elliptical galaxy NGC 6702 and lenticular galaxy NGC 6703 faintly seen at center. (NGC 6703 is the fuzzy spot in the middle of a vertical line of stars at center, NGC 6702 is the fuzzy spot at the bottom of a little arc of stars above center.)

26. Spiral galaxy NGC 6710 – D2 hm Spiral galaxy NGC 6710 seen at top left. Distance about 200 million LY Diameter around 100,000 LY Discovered by Albert Marth in 1864

27. Planetary nebula NGC 6765 – D2 hm imaged by David M Distance 7800 LY Discovered by Albert Marth in 1864 but first identified as a planetary nebula by Minkowski in 1946. Imaged with diffuse nebula setting. Fuzzy objects around edge are possibly polar jets and/or an irregular outer shell.

28. Planetary nebula NGC 6765 – D1 hm Distance 7800 LY Imaged with diffuse nebula setting. Fuzzy objects around edge are possibly polar jets and/or an irregular outer shell.

29. Planetary nebula NGC 6765 – D1 wf NGC 6765 is at center but not really visible here. Fuzzy spot left of center is globular cluster M56.

30. Planetary nebula PNG 064.9+15.5 – D2 hm Aka Minkowsky 1-64 Distance 8100 LY Imaged with diffuse nebula setting.

31. Planetary nebula PNG 064.9+15.5 – D2 hm Aka Minkowsky 1-64 Distance 8100 LY Imaged with galaxy/comet setting. M 1-64 is fainter with this setting, but ring structure and bluish central color are more visible.

32. Planetary nebula PNG 064.9+15.5 – D1 hm Aka Minkowsky 1-64 Distance 8100 LY Imaged with diffuse nebula setting.

33. Planetary nebula PNG 064.9+15.5 – D1 wf Aka Minkowsky 1-64 Distance 8100 LY M1-64 is not really visible here, but at top we can see Delta 1 & Delta 2 Lyrae with open cluster Stephenson 1. At bottom center is Beta Lyra (aka Sheliak).

34. Eclipsing binary star Beta Lyrae animation by Ronald B Aka Sheliak, type A8 white star, distance 880 LY. Eclipsing binary that varies from mag 3.3 to 4.4 in a 13-day cycle. The two stars of the eclipsing binary are so close (about 22 million miles apart – less than the sun-Mercury distance) that their mutual gravity and rapid rotation distorts them into egg-shapes, with possible transfer of gas between them. Also has a small (mag 7) blue companion nearby.

35. Ring Nebula M57 – D2 hm Planetary nebula, pink color at edge is ionized hydrogen, blue in center is ionized oxygen. We can see a little bit of the nebula’s structure at the edges. Distance 2000 LY, estimated to be around 1000 years old as seen here (plus 2000 years that it took the light to reach us). Discovered by Antoine Darquier de Pellepoix in 1779.

36. Ring Nebula M57 – D1 hm The size of the brightest part is 1.2 arc min (diameter about 2/3 LY), but a fainter halo extends to diameter of 4 arc min (2 LY). The shell is expanding at a rate of 30 miles per second. We are not sure of its actual shape, but probably it is a long elliptical shape (either cigar-shape or maybe hourglass) that we are seeing end-on. The bright area might be a torus (ring) of denser material around the center of the ellipse.

37. Ring Nebula M57 – D2 wf M57 at center Beta Lyrae (Sheliak) at right edge of picture, Gamma Lyrae at left edge.

38. Ring Nebula M57 – D1 wf M57 small but visible at center Beta Lyrae (Sheliak) right edge of center, Gamma Lyrae left of center.

39. Ring Nebula M57 with galaxy IC 1296 imaged and labelled by Cliff Hedgepeth In this image, Cliff has labelled the small and very faint spiral galaxy IC 1296, seen as a very faint smudge in the same hm field of view with M57. Distance of M57: 2000 LY Distance of IC 1296: about 230 million LY Diameter of IC 1296: about 80,000 LY

40. Ring Nebula M57 with Comet 73P In May 2006, we watched Comet Schwassman-Wachmann (73P) “passing by” M57. Actually the comet was very close, in our solar system, and M57 is a background object 2000 LY away. The separation of colors in the comet’s image is due to the comet’s motion during the 5 minutes of imaging. (We can see where the comet was during the red filter, the blue filter, etc.)

41. Sky Safari – A Slooh Production by Kochava Yerushalmit