The Summer Triangle

The Summer Triangle
Three brilliant stars form this stellar right triangle making it our best heavenly landmark in the August night sky. Vega high above and its western point appears the brightest of the three. Deneb, also high above and to the east of Vega, appears the dimmest. Altair shines below in the south, forming the most distant point of this great triad.

These three stunning stars are an unofficial star group or asterism that link the three constellations ... Lyra, Cygnus the Swan and Aquila the Eagle. This Summer Triangle lies high above, over the Milky Way which now sweeps across the heavens from north to south.

When one ponders upon this heavenly trinity, a transformational gateway appears. The qualities of this gateway, when personally activated lead one on the path of the gods to divine unity.

The Summer Triangle Stars and Their Constellations





Top-north, bottom-south, left-east, right west
Image: adapted from Sky and Telescope

Note: This graphic does not show the Milky Way, which sweeps through the Summer Triangle from Cassiopeia in the northeast to Scorpius in the southwest. The little green cross marks the zenith, the midpoint between the eastern and western horizons. The Summer Triangle formed by the stars Vega, Deneb and Altair is outlined in yellow. The constellations associated with these stars are as follows ... the pink parallelogram marks Lyra, the large aqua cross marks Cygnus, The Swan and the blue lines form Aquilla, The Eagle.


Vega stands just at the western edge of the summer Milky Way. Look Up, almost straight up, at the zenith to find Vega, the prima donna of this triangular trio. Sparkling blue-white Vega is in the constellation Lyra, the Lyre or Harp.

To locate this constellation which does
not really looklike a musical instrument,
look for a little parallelogram of stars
south of Vega toward Altair.

Image: 365 Starry Nights by Chet Raymo



Astronomical Vega


Image: The Sky Astronomy Software

Vega is interesting for several different reasons … its close proximity to the Earth at only 25 light years away, its brightness, many times that of our Sun, which comes from an inherent luminosity not just from its closeness, its color and apparent brightness which make it a basic standard against which all other stars are ultimately compared, and its relationship to the pole star. Vega, the brightest star in the Summer Triangle, will be the "North Star" in about 12,000 years, instead of present-day Polaris. This change in pole stars is caused by precession, the very slow (26,000-year cycle) wobble of the Earth's rotational axis. The illustration above shows the apparent path of the pole with corresponding years labeled for the present cycle.


An esoteric point of interest is Vega's relationship to the star Sirius. Ponder on this ... when Vega is directly overhead at the Zenith (about 3 hours after an August sunset) Sirius, the God Star and the brightest star, is under our feet! From our head to our toes we are heavenly stimulated in Leo. Another Vega connection to Sirius lies in the Japanese myth. A peasant boy, the star Altair, is allowed to cross the River of Heaven (Milky Way) to unite with the princess and his lover, the star Vega. When does this occur? ... on the seventh day of the seventh month. This is the time when our physical Sun is conjunct our spiritual Sun, Sirius. During this time many celebrate freedom and liberation.