Look Up At The Stars
I present to you, the fourth edition of 'Look Up At The Stars', throughout these blogs we've been taking a closer look at constellation and the stories behind them. Why? Well, if you remember from last edition, we had two reasons for that. For one, they are just the most fascinating thing. Two, if you ever find yourself in the Night Court, knowing the stars might come in handy. And three, if you're on a date, you can impress the other person with your knowledge of the galaxy. Because everyone loves a charmer that knows their stars.

The constellation for this week is...

Paris
The Lyra Constellation


The Lyra constellation is quite a small constellation and can be located in the northern hemisphere. The constellation is also known as the Lyre, which is a stringed musical instrument and is also called Lyra the Harp.

Lyra has 6 major stars, including Vega, which is the fifth brightest star. Lyra also contains two Messier Objects; the Aladfar, Sheliak, Sulafat, Vega, Xihe, and Chasoň.colorful Ring Nebula and M56 which is a globular cluster.



Lyra belongs to the Hercules family of constellations, along with Aquila which we looked at a couple weeks ago. The six stars that are known in the Lyra constellation are Aladfar, Sheliak, Sulafat, Vega, Xihe, and Chasoň.
The Myth of Lyra
Orpheus was the son of the Thracian King Oeagrus and the muse Calliope. When he was young, god Apollo gave him a golden lyre and taught him to play it, and his mother taught him to write verses.

Orpheus was known for his ability to charm even stones with his music, for his attempts to save his wife Eurydice from the underworld, and for being the harpist and companion of Jason and the Argonauts.

Orpheus married the lovely maiden Eurydice. But after their wedding, as she walked with her bridesmaids, she was bitten by a snake and died.

Crazed with grief, Orpheus wandered the hills of Greece until he was murdered. The Muses buried him, and Apollo placed his magical harp in the sky -- as Lyra.

An alternate ending was that once Orpheus died, his lyre was thrown into the sea, where Zeus sent his eagle to retrieve the lyre and placed it in the sky.


@Code by Tanuja (Carina)