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Delta² Lyrae

12 Lyrae

Red Star in Lyra

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Proper Name	None
Bayer Designation	Delta² Lyrae
Flamsteed Number	12 Lyrae
HR (BSC)	7139
HD	175588
Constellation	Lyra
Right Ascension	18h 54m 30s
Declination	+36° 53' 55"
Distance	736 light years 226 parsecs
Magnitude	Apparent: +4.3 Absolute: -2.5
Spectral Class	M4II red bright giant
Optimum Visibility	July
Notes	This huge red giant star has a radius of approximately one Astronomical Unit so that, if it lay at the centre of the Solar System, its outer shell would extend as far as Earth's orbit. Delta² Lyrae is a semiregular variable, and also probably a triple system (a binary pair of yellow dwarfs appear to be following a distant orbit around the red giant at the heart of the system).

Red Delta² Lyrae forms a wide optical pair with Delta¹ Lyrae, the blue star seen here to its northwest. Both stars are distant from the Sun, but they lie more than four hundred light years apart, and are not directly related to one another. Forming a backdrop to the pair is the open cluster Stephenson 1, which is more distant still at some 1,300 light years from the Solar System. Imagery provided by Aladin sky atlas

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