Stars · Star in Lyra
Star
Vega
The first star after the Sun ever photographed, the zero-point of the magnitude scale, and the pole star of 12,000 years from now.
- Constellation
- Lyra
- Designation
- α Lyrae
- Apparent magnitude
- 0.03 · 5th brightest star in the night sky
- Spectral class
- A0Vvar
- Distance
- 25.0 light-years
- Position (J2000)
- RA 18h 37m · Dec +38° 47′
A white main-sequence star, around 10,000 K, like Sirius. About 390× brighter than the faintest star the eye can see. The light you are seeing left in 2001.
History
A daguerreotype taken at Harvard in 1850 made Vega the first star after the Sun to be photographed. For a century its brightness defined magnitude zero.
Other skies
In East Asia it is the Weaver Girl, parted from her husband Altair by the Milky Way and allowed to meet once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh month.
Science
Vega is circled by a disc of dust — found in 1983, one of the first signs that other stars might have planetary systems.