Sky Maps Database: Lyra, Cygnus, and Hercules

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Where to start? By Vega of course. This star is the summer's star star. That's because it's so bright and because it's right on top of your head. Lyra is a tiny constellation, but this star makes it stand out in the summer sky. Plus, a magnificient planetary nebula, visible with binoculars and easy to locate, is found in Lyra, right between two of it's stars (check out the map). It looks splendid with an Oxygen III filter.

Cygnus houses another great Planetary Nebula, also visible with a pair of binocs: Messier 27, The Dumbbell Nebula. Cygnus is crossed by the milky way, and is also right on top of your head in August. Very Big.

Finally, Hercules, the mighty hero represented in the sky by the Greeks, also has a perl: the greatest globular cluster in the northern hemisphere, so bright that it's visible with the naked eye: Messier 13 (Great Cluster in Hercules on the map). It's also one of the oldest clusters known to date: 13 billion years old, and you must know that the universe's age is estimated to around 13.7 billion years old. The largest radiotelescope in the world, Arecibo (305 meters wide), sent a message towards it, explaining how life on earth works, and how to answer us. We'll have to wait thousands of years untill they get the message over they, if there is someone to get it...