Epsilon Lyra - The Double Double

[Jeff]

I love to show people this object. It's neat to see the reaction when they see that one star becomes two, then those two become four as you increase the power. This is at about 300x through a 6" refractor (4mm eyepiece in the camera adapter). 50D, 2sec, ISO400, f8

[Celestron]

Super nice Jeff !!

[BobOh]

How close are the stars actually? Is each "pair" a binary?

[Madweasel]

The four stars are all part of the same system: the stars in each of the two close pairs orbit each other, one in about 1200 years (separated by about 140AU), the other around half that period (and therefore something like 100AU apart). The two pairs are separated by about 0.16ly, and orbit in around 500,000 years.