158 miles, and if our sun occupied the place of Vega, it would appear to us as a faint point of light just visible to the naked eye. Vega is said to surpass our sun in brilliance a hundredfold, and is approaching our system at the rate of 9.5 miles a second.
"It is a young orb," says Serviss, "blazing with the white fire of stellar youth, dazzling the eye with the strange splendour of its gem-like rays, which possess the piercing quality of the reflections from a blue-white diamond."
Mrs. Martin pays the following tribute to this azure-tinted sun:
"About three hours after Arcturus has risen there will come peeping over the north-eastern horizon a brilliant, bluish star which twinkles so gaily and commands such instant admiration that its entrance into view has almost a dramatic effect. This is Vega, the third of the trio of bright stars that give a May-dance around the pole. ... Early in May the star rises at about the same hour that the sun sets, and all summer long it is the gayest and perhaps the most instantly attractive star in the evening skies. ... Vega has a companion star, much smaller than itself, revolving around it, which is of the same beautiful bluish colour as the larger star. The companion is of about the tenth magnitude and can be seen only with a large telescope. Vega is about four thousand times brighter than her companion."
Vega is visible at some hour of every clear night throughout the year and culminates at 9 p.m., Aug. 12th.
β Lyræ, known to the Arabs as "Sheliak, " is a noted variable. Goodricke in 1784 was the first to detect changes in its brilliancy, and Argelander carefully observed the star for nineteen years, 1840 to 1859. Its period is 12 days 21¾ hours, though it has remarkable and unexplained variations in light. Scheiner says of it, "There is great probability that more than two bodies are concerned in the case of β Lyræ." This star is one of ten that are said to be pear-shaped, a fact that may account for its light variations.
