Star profile
Sulafat
Gamma Lyrae · Lyra
Hot blue starWhat is Sulafat
Sulafat is a blue class-B star in the constellation Lyra, lying 620 light-years away, much farther than its apparent brightness suggests. Its Arabic name means «the tortoise», a direct echo of the Greek myth in which the newborn Hermes stretched strings across a tortoise shell to make the first lyre, later gifted to Apollo. Every glance at this star is, in a way, a glance at the mythical origin of music itself.
Where it is and when to see it
Sulafat lies in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is July, when it culminates around midnight.
- From London it culminates about 71° above the horizon.
- From New York it culminates about 82° above the horizon.
- From Sydney it culminates about 23° above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere north of 57° S.
It ranks no. 2 in brightness among the 37 stars of Lyra in our catalogue. To find it, start from Vega, the brightest: it lies about 8° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 620 years ago.
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A public signature from a real person. The chosen name is a symbolic denomination within Stelvia, with no official standing or IAU recognition: the sky is not for sale and belongs to no one.
Astronomical data for Sulafat
- Constellation
- Lyra
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.25
- Distance
- 620.2 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 284.736° · Dec 32.690°
- Catalogue
- HIP 93194 · HD 176437
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Lyra
Lyra has 37 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- VegaAlpha Lyrae0.03
- SheliakBeta Lyrae3.52
- 13 Lyrae4.08
- Delta 2 Lyrae4.22
- Kappa Lyrae4.33
- Zeta 1 Lyrae4.34
- Theta Lyrae4.35
- AladfarEta Lyrae4.43