Binary tour of Lyra

by Jamie Dillon

Been sitting on this one since July, when I went thru the doubles in Lyra. May serve as reminders of fun and easy sights for crusty veterans, and an interesting diversion for other crusty rookies.

Most famous are of course the Big Guy, with its tiny companion, and epsilon Lyr. Turns out Vega is an optical double after all, a so-what at this point. The Double-double is famous and on everyone's hot list for good reasons. Orbits within orbits.

Now for the treats that get passed up on the way to the Ring. Delta Lyrae shows on the charts as delta 1,2, but is nowhere listed as a binary, that I can find, from which I presume it's an optical. But what a star field. In a 1 degree field, the stars around delta Lyr form a captivating pyramid.

Here's an extrememly artful shape that happens to show in a wide-field view from the angle of this planet, like the way a snowflake looks on a cold objective if you get it under the microscope in time. Beauty for its own sake. Now who has the time to set up an asterism just so, to provide a spare lovely sketch like that, just at the right time across the epochs?

Beta Lyr is a pair with close companions, with the primary a tad bluer and much brighter than the secondary, which shows white. 'Course the y-pattern around beta is a comforting asterism for navigating. Eta is off to the NW a bit from Vega, almost an even white pair in my scope.

Now theta Lyrae, just south of eta, is in my new Tirion charts as a double. Stay tuned, as I ain't been there yet. So is the one just below beta, the letter like a rounded v. That's the letter phew, no? In Star Atlas, phew Lyrae is drawn as 1,2 with both partners binary. Now I'm curious, not yellow.

Zeta Lyrae is the secret gem hereabouts, a lovely blue-white pair. The brighter is a bit bluer. Worth the visit.

I know this is Nortonish and quaint, but as you can see I find binaries captivating, ever since that moment last winter with ole #31 when I aimed at Mintaka. The planetary orbit experts have started lately to calculate possible orbits for a viable planet in a binary system. Visually the surprise factor doesn't fail to get me. Also, while the big scopes up on Mauna Kea and Paranal and in orbit, as well as photos, just smoke our instruments for deep sky, our scopes are optically optimal for visuals of most multiple systems. Further, within our community it's a specialty not covered (tell I spent some time in the ivory tower?).

>Missing from the Coe report was mu Cephei, Herschel's Garnet Star, a
>gorgeous ruddy variable.

This work was done on Felix the 11.5, f/4.5 Dobs, with Celestron eyepieces, a 25mm SMA and 2 Plossls, 17 and 7.5 (which incidentally make up Celestron's accessory kit C, along with a Moon filter, CD-ROM, and LED light), and a TeleVue 2x Barlow.