Lyra the Harp

When I looked closely at my images of Messier 57, I noticed the very faint barred spiral galaxy IC1296 close by.

 The astro-imaging lesson that I have only learnt quite recently is - "Never throw any original data away - cos given time you never know what you might find"!

M57 and IC1296 taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope in Infrared - Credit:  NASA/JPL-Caltech/J. Hora (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA) - modificato

Map showing the Constellation Lyra the Lyre or Harp - Credit SkyMap Pro 7

In Greek mythology, Lyra represents the lyre of Orpheus. Made by Hermes from a tortoise shell, given to Apollo as a bargain, it was said to be the first lyre ever produced. Orpheus's music was said to be so great that even inanimate objects such as trees, streams, and rocks could be charmed. Joining Jason and the Argonauts, his music was able to quell the voices of the dangerous Sirens, who sang tempting songs to the Argonauts^.

At one point, Orpheus married Eurydice, a nymph. While fleeing from an attack by Aristaeus, she stepped on a snake that bit her, killing her. To reclaim her, Orpheus entered the Underworld, where the music from his lyre charmed Hades. Hades relented and let Orpheus bring Eurydice back, on the condition that he never once look back until outside. Unfortunately, near the very end, Orpheus faltered and looked back, causing Eurydice to be left in the Underworld forever. Orpheus spent the rest of his life strumming his lyre while wandering aimlessly through the land, rejecting all marriage offers from women. Credit Wikipedia

I guess if you reject all offers from women you are only left with strumming your Lyre or Astro-photography!

Took an image of Vega's spectrum using my homemade spectrometer. The spectrum was then added to this widefield image that I captured a couple of years ago.

Vega is the second brightest star visible in the Northern Hemisphere. Its apparent brightness is largely due to its close proximity at 25 light years distant. Vega is a main sequence star, fusing hydrogen at its core, and has approximately twice the mass of our Sun.  Because it is larger than our Sun it is using its nuclear fuel faster and therefore, although younger than our sun, is similarly half way through its life. Vega spins very quickly and is believed to have a protoplanetary disk where  planets are forming.

Vega was the first star to have its spectrum recorded, so I'm hardly "going boldly where no man has been before" but I am very pleased to have captured its spectrum with my home made kit. My next step is to analyse the spectrum data and prepare an energy -wavelength graph. As 'Deep-Thought' once said "This might take some time!

My homemade spectrometer