Pair of double stars in Lyra
Without using any optical aid, some people with excellent eyesight can just barely detect that Epsilon Lyra is a double star. Through any binoculars or telescope, the two stars, Epsilon 1 (to the north) and Epsilon 2, are obvious. However, it takes fairly high magnification and steady seeing to observe that each of these stars is itself a close double.
The orbital periods are estimated to be about 1200 years for Epsilon 1 and about 600 years for Epsilon 2. The distances between the stars of each pair are about 160 and 140 astronomical units, respectively. (For comparison, the orbital period of Neptune is 165 years, and it is about 29 astronomical units from the Sun.)
| Magnitudes | 5.0, 6.1, 5.3, 5.4 |
| Separations | 2.2", 208", 2.4" |
| Distance (light yrs) | 162 |
| Right Ascension | 18:44.9 |
| Declination | +39 41 |
Image details: A composite of 10 exposures of 1 second (for the background stars) and 10 exposures of 1/80 second (for Epsilon Lyrae) at ISO 12800, taken with a Canon T6i camera at ISO 12800 through a Meade 14” LX850 telescope at f/16.
October 2023