Vega
Where is Vega?
Look southwest, about 68° up at 20:20 in Lyra.
- Rises
- Always up
- Highest
- 18:40
- Sets
- Never
- Best after dark
- 20:20 · 68°
Can I see Vega tonight?
From London tonight, Vega is above the horizon after dark. It’s highest soon after dark, around 20:20, in the southwest at 68°.
At magnitude 0.0 it is one of the brighter points in the sky, easy to see by eye when it’s clear.
This is position and timing only: clouds, haze and light pollution aren’t included.
What does Vega look like?
Vega looks white to the eye. Its spectral type is A0Va: white main-sequence star (hotter than the Sun).
Eyes
A brilliant blue-white star, high overhead on summer evenings from mid-northern latitudes.
Binoculars
A sparkling blue-white point. Nearby, Epsilon Lyrae appears as two stars.
Telescope
A point of light. The nearby Double Double (Epsilon Lyrae) and the Ring Nebula are the telescope highlights of the area.
About Vega
Vega is the brightest star in the constellation Lyra and the fifth-brightest in the night sky. Only 25 light-years away, it is a young white star about twice the mass of the Sun.
Vega has been a standard for astronomers: for a long time it defined the zero point of the magnitude scale. It was also one of the first stars ever photographed, in 1850.
Because Earth’s axis slowly wobbles over about 26,000 years, the pole star changes. About 12,000 years from now Vega will lie near the north celestial pole, as it did roughly 14,000 years ago.
Vega is one corner of the Summer Triangle, together with Deneb and Altair.
Vega spins very fast, about once every 12.5 hours, and we happen to see it almost pole-on. In 1983 an infrared satellite found that it is surrounded by a disk of cold dust, one of the first such disks discovered around another star.
Vega is high overhead on summer evenings from mid-northern latitudes, so it is often the first star to appear at dusk.
Vega in Lyra
Questions
Will Vega become the North Star?
What is the Summer Triangle?
Sources: SkyMate; Wikidata (CC0). Positions computed for your place and time with astronomy-engine. Data & Licences