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  • Stargazing News - August 11th, 2025

    From CJ@954:100/61 to All on Sunday, August 10, 2025 07:14:44
    Monday August 11, 2025

    Double Stars in Lyra's Parallelogram (all night)

    Each corner of Lyra's parallelogram is marked by a double star. Zeta Lyrae (? Lyr), the corner closest to the very bright star Vega, can be split with binoculars. Both components are white, with one star slightly brighter than
    the other. Each of these stars also has a partner that is too close together
    to split visually. Moving clockwise, the southwest corner star is Sheliak, the brightest of a tight little grouping of stars visible in a telescope. Sheliak itself has a close-in, dim companion in an eclipsing binary system with a 13- day period. The hot, blue giant star Sulafat sits at the farthest corner from Vega. 620 light-years-distant Sulafat is much larger than Vega - an old star
    on its way to becoming an orange giant many years from now. Add the slightly dimmer stars Lambda Lyrae and HD 176051 to its south and west, respectively to form a naked-eye triple. Delta Lyrae (? Lyr) marks the northeast corner of the parallelogram. Sharp eyes and binoculars will easily split the double into one blue and one red star. The blue star is one hundred light-years farther away than the red one; they just happen to appear close together along the same
    line of sight.

    (Data courtesy of Starry Night)
    --- SBBSecho 3.23-Linux
    * Origin: CJ's Place, Orange City FL > cjsplace.thruhere.net (954:100/61)