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Each time of year has a familiar star pattern associated with it, one that skywatchers like to locate as darkness falls. Even though summer starts sliding into fall, people look to admire and share the “Summer Triangle.” It is always a popular “skymark” of the late summer sky.
Lying directly overhead shines the magnificent blue-white star Vega, fourth brightest as seen from the Blue Ridge. It lies immediately west of the gentle band of the Milky Way and is easily the brightest of the Triangle’s stars.
To Vega’s east sitting directly in the Milky Way twinkles another easily seen star, Deneb the brightest star in the constellation Cygnus, the swan. The Summer Triangle’s third and most southern member is Altair, which shines on the eastern “shore” of the Milky Way.
These three special stars can be spotted from suburban areas while the flowing Milky Way can be found on a moonless night from dark sites such as those along the Blue Ridge Parkway and at many state parks.
Follow these three stars as summer turns into fall, then as fall turns into winter. Yes, even though they are called the Summer Triangle, Vega, Deneb and Altair will be found low in the west and northwest in the early evenings just before Christmas.
The story above first appeared in our September / October 2021 issue.
