Summer Triangle

So pay attention to that.

They're going to be talking about the Summer Triangle.

That starts at 8 p.m. tonight and runs until 11 p.m.

So if you have a chance to go out and we've got clear skies, it'd be a fun night to see because it might be a little cooler and you might not have to worry about any mosquitoes, which I've seen and experienced a few mosquitoes now.

After evening twilight, look overhead for three bright stars, Vega, Altair, and Deneb.

Together, they form the famous Summer Triangle.

From equatorial latitudes, this large stellar triangle stretches prominently across the evening sky and makes a useful starting point for navigating the stars.

Turn toward the south and you'll find Scorpius and Sagittarius.

What did we see? We saw...

Did a bit of a tour of the Summer Triangle.

We had the moon.

We had Saturn.

Deep sky.

Deep sky.

So as we move into autumn, it's time to start looking at the deep sky away from the summer triangle.

And to that end, tis month...

I'm Kelly Beaty of Sky & Telescope magazine, and tonight we're going on a tour of the stars and planets that you'll see overhead during September.

First we'll check the calendar for this month's equinox and harvest moon, then we'll track down the bright planets, explore some lesser-known constellations, and bounce around the summer triangle.

It's a great introduction to the late summer sky.

So grab your curiosity and come along with me on this month's sky tour.

It's roughly 100 times farther away than Vega, but it's still quite the sparkler, isn't it? That's because Deneb is a real powerhouse of a star, pumping out up to 200,000 times more light than our Sun does.

Now look for a third bright star, Altair, about three-fifths to the south of Vega and four from Deneb.

Week by week, this trio of easy-to-spot stars, known collectively as the Summer Triangle, is gradually migrating westward in the sky.

If you're lucky enough to live in a really dark location, far from city lights, you'll have no trouble seeing a delicately glowing river of light that we call the Milky Way, vaulting high across the summer sky.

Okay.

Well, the southernmost star in the Summer Triangle is Altair, uh, which is easily identifiable because it has those two fainter stars which flank it.

You got Tarazed, which is Gamma Aquilae to the northwest, and Alshain, uh, which is Beta Aquilae, to the southeast.

The constellation represents an eagle, um, and it looks...

Just like with the OP, this one I think is just decent, but nothing too memorable about it.

Um, as for the song title, Vega, uh, this is in reference to the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra, which is part of the Summer Triangle, um, a recognizable pattern of the three bright stars in the night sky, and this is all alluded to in the song, obviously through metaphors.

I think we clearly know who Vega is in this series.

No debate here [laughs] as with who the best girl in this harem is, so synonymous there with Vega.

Um, in the song, Vega though refers to the eyes of a person that the singer admires.

So Kazuya to Chizuru obviously, and how it's the singer's sole focus.

Like, like that's all they see and nothing else, and you hear this in the chorus with the lyrics, "Your eyes like my Vega could make me forget even the Summer Triangle.

Honestly, I don't understand.

Also in the north is the constellation Cygnus the Swan, which lies on the plane of the Milky Way galaxy.

Cygnus contains the star Deneb, one of the brightest stars in the night sky and one of the corners of the Summer Triangle.

It's also home to the giant Cygnus OB2 stellar association, which includes one of the largest known stars in the universe, MNL Cygnus, a red hypergiant about one thousand one hundred and eighty-three times the radius and fifty times the mass of our sun.

In fact, were it placed at the center of our solar system where the sun is, its surface would extend out beyond the orbit of Jupiter.