Making a heavy dob base more manageable: divide and conquer!

The problem

I’ve had my 10-inch solid tube Dobsonian telescope, a Hardin "Deep Space Hunter" made by Guan Sheng Optical (GSO), for 20 years now and it has served me well. In fact, it’s doing better than my own body at this point. I’ve found it harder to load it in and out of the car to get to my darker sky sites. I needed to make it easier.

The solution

I can’t do much about the tube, which weighs about 32 lbs., but a post on Cloudy Nights got the neurons firing in my brain. It showed what one amateur astronomer did with the base of his 12-inch, and I decided to try it on my 10-inch.

The base is made of particle board and weighs about 38 lbs. It's heavy and awkward to get into the car. What if I could split it into two pieces that could be easily reassembled? That’s the idea, and it works! I separated the two round ground boards as one section, actually the round bottom of the rocker box and the ground board, from the rocker box as the other section. These are shown in the pink boxes below. These two sections were originally put together with six long wood screws coming up from underneath the rocker box bottom and into the bottom edges of the rocker box (indicated by the blue arrow below). The pink boxes denote the sections that would be separated:

 

To reassemble the two sections, I bolted two aluminum angles to the inside of each side of the rocker box and fastened them to the round rocker box bottom with four knobs inserted into holes drilled in the horizontal leg of each angle and screwed into t-nuts inserted in the underside of the rocker box bottom.

Inside the rocker box, showing the first angle
fully assembled. The knobs will be used to disassemble
 and reassemble the base.

The outside of the rocker box, showing the
bolts holding the angle. These will stay put.

The whole project took one afternoon, and was only complicated by the fact that I had replaced the original “lazy Susan” azimuth bearing (as shown in the diagram above) with Teflon pads riding on Ebony Star Formica (alas, no longer available). The pads would be in the way of the holes for the knobs, so I had to relocate them closer to the center. Telescope makers will tell you the pads should be located directly over the feet, but I found that in this scope it caused too much friction, so I had located the pads about a third of the way in from the edges, and the azimuth bearing was a lot smoother. Moving them further in would be pushing it, but it actually moves even more smoothly now.

The base is now easy to disassemble and reassemble.

Fully assembled. (The scope sits on a plywood
 dolly I made to make it easy to roll out on the
 driveway when I set up my Redneck Observatory.)

The rocker box now fits around
the tube in the car, saving much-
needed space.

How to do it

If you try this at home, think carefully about where you will put all the holes and measure everything precisely. I had to dodge the holes in the rocker sides from the original wood screws, make sure the knobs didn’t intersect with the circular path of the Teflon pads, avoid a pipe that I installed that holds a swivel table, and leave room to turn the knobs. It was a tight fit, but it works.

The tools and materials I used:

Materials (links to the ones I used):

Two aluminum angles, 1/4” thick, 2” legs (that turned out to be 1-3/4” in reality), and 12” lengths (that were actually 11-5/8”, although they were 1/4" thick, as advertised).

Four male knobs with 1” 1/4-20 threads. (3/4” might have been better- fewer turns needed as long as they reached the threads of the t-nuts.)

Four t-nuts (1/4-20 x 7/16 length); epoxy 

Eight 1-1/2" 1/4-20 bolts, eight 1/4-20 nylon lock nuts, 24 1/4” ID - 3/4” OD flat washers

Tools:

Cordless drill with 1/16”, 1/4”, and 5/16” drill bits, and one 3/4” Forstner bit

Hammer and short thick rusty bolt for hammering in the t-nuts below flush

Two 6” quick-release clamps

Metal file and sandpaper to round the sharp edges of the aluminum angles.

Hand vacuum to keep the aluminum shavings from getting everywhere

Process (for my particular dob, but most should be similar):

Caution! Aluminum angle edges may be extremely sharp. File and sand them before working with them.

Measure and plan where you are going to position the angles and drill all the holes. Do it a few times and set the angles, bolts, and nuts in position to see if there will be any issues before you start drilling. Mark the drill points clearly in pencil on the angles.

Disassemble and then reassemble the rocker box and round rocker box bottom, leaving the round ground board off. You will need to drill in the botton of the round rocker box bottom piece.

Cut the angles if needed (with a metal hacksaw), file any sharp edges that will be exposed, and clamp to the rocker box sides. In my case, there is a front stiffener board that precluded clamping on that end, so I found a piece of wood that fit tightly inside between the two angles that kept the front ends pressed against the sides. Improvise as needed.

I found it easier to do one side first, then the other.

Using a small drill bit, 1/16” or so, drill pilot holes for the two knobs from above, through the angle and the round rocker box bottom. (I did each hole one at a time.) You need to keep these holes small because the Forstner bit you will use to inset the t-nuts on the underside of the rocker box bottom needs to be able to center and it can’t do so with a larger hole drilled through.

Turn the assembly on its side and use the 3/4” Forstner bit to inset the two holes about 1/8”. This ensures that the t-nuts won’t stick out and scrape the ground board surface. I found later that the t-nuts don't hold well in the particle board, only an issue when the base is disassembled, so I epoxied them in.

T-nut epoxied and hammered into place on the
underside of the rocker box bottom. Note the
1/8" recess cut using a 3/4" Forstner bit.

Turn the assembly upright again and drill out the two holes with a 1/4” bit, all the way through.

Turn the assembly on its side again and widen the centers of the t-nut insets with a 5/16” bit.

Hammer a t-nut partially in, then fit the knob from the other side and make sure they meet up properly and there is no binding. I had to use the Forstner bit to widen the sides for several of the holes due to, ahem, user error, but got them all working. Once they line up, coat them with epoxy, being careful not to get any into the threaded tube, and hammer the t-nuts all the way in so they are below the level of the bearing surface.

Turn the assembly upright again and once both knob holes are drilled, screw in the knobs tightly.

With the sides still clamped/braced to the angles, drill small (1/6”) pilot holes horizontally through the angles and the sides from inside (aluminum first) to outside. Widen the holes with a 1/4” bit and insert the bolts from the outside with flat washers and put the nylon lock nuts with flat washers on the inside (aluminum surface).

Before assembling the base to the ground board, a little trick for Teflon bearings is to rub a bar of soap on the bearing surface that contacts the Teflon to give it a little more smoothness.

Once you are done, remove the original wood screws holding the rocker box to the ground boards, assemble the base with the knobs, and test the fully assembled telescope for function.

Now when you have to transport the telescope, you only have four knobs to separate and reassemble the two parts of the base, which is no longer a heavy, ungainly bulk. In fact, you should be able to cradle the rocker box around the bottom of the tube to save space in your vehicle, as in the image above.

What if you want a 10-inch solid tube dob, but don't want to mess with this mod?

All dobs are not created equal. If you are in the market for a lighter weight basic Dobsonian, consider the Orion Sky Quest series. Now that they are apparently made by Jinghua Optical Corporation (JOC), they are even lighter than the Synta-made scopes, and are the lightest mass-produced solid tube basic dobs I have come across. For example, the XT 10 has a 24.2 lb. tube, a 21.5 lb base, for a total of 46 lbs. In contrast, an Apertura AD10, made by Guan Sheng Optical (GSO), has a 34.8 lb. tube, a 31.4 lb. base, for a total of 66.2 lbs., a difference of 20.2 lbs. for the same size aperture! [7-12-24 update: Orion's parent company has closed up, so Orion may not be around much longer. If you're interested, make your decision quickly. 7-19-24 update: Looks like Orion is belly up. Maybe another company will supply the XT10s under a different name??] 

Build your own Redneck Observatory

Redneck /rĕd′nĕk″/ (adj.) - Where there’s a will—and duct tape, a few bungee cords, some plywood, and maybe a few wood screws—there’s a way.

The two enemies of a dark sky are sky glow (a bright glow in the sky resulting from myriad city, town, and industrial lighting) and glare (nearby lights that shine in your eyes and create light trespass). You can’t do much about sky glow other than move somewhere where it’s darker, but you do have some options to deal with glare and light trespass.

Dealing with local lights, your options are:

1. Move somewhere else. Not feasible or even advisable for most people, at least in the short term.

2. Find a better place to observe. Whether it’s down the street or somewhere you need to drive to, it’s usually the best option, and you can often improve both the sky glow and glare situation. But we don’t always want to cart our gear beyond our home environs, and some nights it may only be clear for a short time and we want to take advantage of that right at home. Plus there’s the convenience and safety of being at home.

3. Talk to neighbors about shutting their lights off at night, shielding them, or putting motion sensor lights in. If you have only a couple of offending lights, this might work in the short term, but even cooperative and friendly neighbors will forget or want them on at times. My neighbors clearly believe all-night lights keep crime away and make them feel safe from the dark. I won’t get into the issues with that philosophy, but they have a right to think the way they do and I’m not likely going to change that.

You can also offer to show them stuff in your telescope and approach the lighting issue that way. Recently, I was at a cabin in the mountains, and my brother and I set up our telescopes outside our cabin. We set up before it got dark and it attracted the attention of our neighbors in the other cabins. By the time we were done showing them some objects and chatting about astronomy, we had no lights to worry about the rest of the night.

4. Accept the sky glow and block out the local lights. That’s what I’m talking about here.

At my house, the backyard is mostly blocked by trees and other houses. Therefore, I have to observe in the front yard. All of the neighbors up and down the street have all-night garage and porch lights, usually ten blazing away, none of which are shielded, and only one of which is on a motion sensor. In addition, I have headlights from a busy intersection shining directly at me as cars wait at the red light.

I took control of the situation and built what I call my “Redneck Observatory."

My observatory consists of found objects like my garbage and recycling cans, so I guess I could also call it my “Dada Observatory.” I have a car parked on one side of the driveway, I use frames from the packing of a bathroom sink we had installed, a PVC pipe holder for a target frame I built, some cheap moving blankets, some plastic spring clamps, and a few bungee cords.

The plan was to use stuff I already had sitting around nearby that would be easy to throw together to block out the lights. The car is usually parked there, so I just put a 4x4 piece of wood, left over from stacking flooring, along the edge of the roof with a short extension to hold a small moving blanket in place. The blanket is clamped to the end of an upright frame consisting of the aforementioned bathroom sink packing frame with a height extension made of furring strips (my favorite cheap wood) and old baseboard from the flooring job.

A packing frame leans against the garbage can and is bungeed to it to keep it from falling in the wind. The other packing frame (never throw stuff out that you might be able to use) leans against the recycling can and is likewise bungeed. A big moving blanket is thrown over both frames and clamped in place with spring clamps. The third wall, on the right, is my old PVC target stand with a frame made of furring strips and old baseboard, again with a moving blanket thrown over it and clamped in place.

It takes me 20 minutes to set up and break down if I take my time. Not my casual or optimistic estimate, I actually timed it. If I observe for an hour or more it's worth it to me. Rarely do I observe for a shorter time.

So before you give up, look around the house and see what you have. Maybe you can build your own Redneck Observatory.

 

Markarian’s Chain of Galaxies in 3D

Markarian's Chain of Galaxies image by PJ Singh (paramsach). (CC)

Markarian’s Chain is a curved line of galaxies starting in the constellation Virgo and straying into Coma Berenices. Many of them can be seen in backyard telescopes, including the Messier galaxies M84, M86, and M87, as well as the interacting galaxies known as “The Eyes,” NGC 4435 and NGC 4438. The group is a favorite target for amateur astronomers venturing into the Virgo Cluster of galaxies.

The group was named after Benjamin Markarian, an Armenian astrophysicist who discovered that at least seven of the galaxies have a common motion through space. This chain is part of the Virgo Cluster, which is the closest galaxy cluster to our own Local Group, centered about 50 to 70 million light years away. The Virgo Cluster contains at least 2,000 galaxies.

See this Sky & Telescope article for a chart and directions for navigating to Markarian’s Chain.

See Messier-objects.com for more information on the individual galaxies and close up images.

The following stereoscopic pairs, derived from the images above, illustrate the relative distances of the various galaxies in the chain. INSTRUCTIONS on how to see the depth in these images. South is up.

Click on images for larger scale to read labels.

PARALLEL VIEW:

With labels:

CROSS VIEW:

With labels:

Data:

Markarian's Chain

Galaxy      Dist. (MLY)    Mag

NGC4479       60            12.6

NGC4388       57            10.9

NGC4387       56            12.0

NGC4478       55            11.3

NGC4477       55            10.3

NGC4476       55            12.3

NGC4425       55            11.9

M84                55              9.0

NGC4458       54            12.0

M87                53              8.7

NGC4486A     52            12.1

NGC4438       52            10.0

NGC4435       52            10.6

M86                52              8.8

NGC4413       51            12.1

NGC4506       50            12.7

NGC4473       50            10.1

NGC4461       50            10.9

NGC4459       50            10.3

NGC4402       50            11.9

Galaxies viewed from intergalactic space

When we look out into the universe from Earth, from within our Milky Way galaxy, we are looking through a lot of static. This static is all the stars, clusters, nebulae, and dust in our own galaxy. When we look outward through the plane of the galaxy we see more static (the Milky Way in our night sky), somewhat less when we look above or below the plane.

Look at any image of a galaxy and you’ll see lots of stars. But except for some high-powered images of very close galaxies, these are all Milky Way stars just getting in the way. Sure, it makes a pretty picture, but the reality of it is that we are looking at a very distant object, the galaxy, through a screen of very close objects, all of the Milky Way stars and objects.

At outreach events, I try to give people a sense of this by describing it as looking out of a car windshield in the rain at another car way down the road. The raindrops on the windshield are the stars in our own galaxy, and the car is another galaxy.

If we took away all the foreground stars and objects—wiping the windshield, as it were—we would get a better picture of what specific galaxies look like from intergalactic space. When looking in a telescope, foreground stars often distort the view of the faint galaxy and we even get used to foreground star patterns as if they are part of the galaxy. But they aren’t.

This is just another way of looking at our universe from a different perspective. In this case, a perspective we will never have the chance to actually experience. But we can simulate that experience as if we were in an intergalactic spacecraft, traveling through the universe as we pass galaxy after galaxy. There isn’t a whole lot of anything visible between galaxies. We might pass the occasional intergalactic star close enough to see it, but mostly we would be passing through very rarified ionized hydrogen gas with some other elements thrown in—essentially a pristine view through a clean windshield.

Here are some examples of what we might see from the window of our intergalactic spacecraft:

M31, The Andromeda Galaxy

At 2.5 million light years from Earth, M31 is a member of our local group of galaxies. Larger telescopes can make out several dust lanes, many of the galaxy’s globular clusters, as well as larger nebulae. It has two satellite galaxies, M32 (above) and M110 (below), seen in these images with south up.

The view through the stars in our own galaxy:

Our view from intergalactic space:

Photo of M31 by Hypatia Alexandria (CC). Starless version created with StarNet.

NGC 2403

Farther away at 8 million light years is the spiral galaxy NGC 2403. The galaxy is about 50,000 light years in diameter. It contains a huge HII star-forming region, NGC 2404, almost 1,000 light years in diameter itself, visible as a pink spot on the right side of the center of the galaxy in this image with south up. Notice the distant galaxy in the upper left.

The view through the stars in our own galaxy:

Our view from intergalactic space:

Photo of NGC 2403 by Carsten Frenzl (CC). Starless version created with StarNet.

NGC 4038 and 4039 (The Antennae)

NGC 4038 and 4039 are colliding and merging galaxies also known as The Antennae or Ring Tail Galaxies (ARP 244). The tidal tails looking like insect antennae are a result of this interaction, and can be seen better without the intervening Milky Way star screen. The galaxies are about 45 million light years away.

The view through the stars in our own galaxy:

Our view from intergalactic space:

Photo of Antennae galaxies by Nicholas Jones (CC). Starless version created with StarNet and Paint.net.

Supernova in M101

One of the few times we can ever see a star in another galaxy in our backyard telescopes is when it explodes as a supernova, sometimes outshining its entire galaxy. The images below show the recent Supernova 2023ixf in one of the outer arms of the large spiral galaxy M101, 21 million light years away. The supernova is below and left of the center of the galaxy, apparently embedded in the HII region NGC 5461. The detached blue spot to the left of the galaxy is NGC 5471, a massive star-forming HII region in its outer arm, about 200 times the size of the Orion Nebula, M42. That's a distant galaxy, PGC 49919 at about 100 million light years distant, on the right edge of the image. 

The view through the stars in our own galaxy:

Our view from intergalactic space:

Photo of M101 and SN2023ixf by Jason Allread (CC). Starless version created with StarNet and Paint.net.

Light pollution and the future of amateur astronomy

Photo by VillageHero (CC)

A thread on the Cloudy Nights forum got me thinking about light pollution and the future of amateur astronomy, especially the visual astronomy that I love so much. I can only say for certain that amateur astronomy, for those whom circumstances allow, will still be an enjoyable hobby in the future in some form or another.

Based on trends I'm seeing now from my limited point of view, cheap Electronically Assisted Astronomy (EAA), or some semblance of it, will likely be the mainstream portal for new amateur astronomers or casual hobbyists until the next big thing comes along. We're almost there already. EAA is the use of a camera in lieu of an eyepiece at the telescope to capture and view images in near real time. It has recently become more affordable with the introduction of the Seestar S50 Smart Telescope, which is often paired with a tablet on a tripod for viewing its images. While still hindered by light pollution, these telescopes can cut through much of it, making for satisfying imaging even in light polluted areas.

People want to create something to share on social media, not just look at stuff. Who creates astro images and doesn't share them online? Here I am sharing material on visual observing because I can't share the actual views themselves, other than describing them in words or sketches. Social validation is huge in our society, probably always has been, and I don't see that changing.

I think most astro-imaging will be done from the comfort of home using data obtained in the backyard, from remote telescopes, and from data shared online (like Hubble data). Why drive way out, freeze in the cold, set up equipment, etc. when it will no longer be necessary? 

Will light pollution still be an issue for amateur astronomers? I think it will likely only be a pressing issue for a shrinking group of visual astronomers. Imagers, who used to be the biggest proponents of keeping the sky and observing field dark, now can obtain and process fantastic images from horribly light polluted locations, like this one from someone's backyard in Washington, DC. They can reject frames ruined by light, satellites, planes, clouds, etc. Sure, dark skies are better, but are no longer essential to create great deep-sky images. Visual observers have no such recourse.

At our public and club-only star parties, imagers are now the ones with bright unshielded screens, along with those with EAA setups, because dark adaptation no longer matters to them. At the latest public event, a young girl asked me, "Why do you ban white lights and pass out red filter material for our phones when you all have your bright white screens on?" I couldn't answer her.

In the foreseeable future, I think a few visual observers will be the only amateur astronomers with the self-interest to fight light pollution, and it may be mainly wildlife enthusiasts that take up the torch (see what I did there). I think most visual observers will just drive (or move) somewhere darker, or observe the bright planets, the Moon, the Sun, and double stars at or closer to home. That's what I do now.

Corvus in 3D

3D Constellation post index and instructions

CORVUS, The Crow

The pattern we see.

The 3D version. Click for a larger image (for phones and small screens).

PARALLEL VIEW:

With labels:

CROSS VIEW:

With labels:

Data:

Object                Magnitude     Dist. (light yrs.)

ε                               3.0          318

Gienah (γ)                2.6          154

Kraz (β)                    2.7          146

δ                               3.0           87

η                               4.3           60

α                          4.0           49

Hydra in 3D

3D Constellation post index and instructions

HYDRA, The Water Snake

The pattern we see.

The 3D version. Click for a larger image (for phones and small screens).

PARALLEL VIEW:

With labels:

CROSS VIEW:

With labels:

Data:

Object        Magnitude    Dist. (light years)

η                         4.3           590

σ                         4.4           370

ρ                         4.3           350

58 (E)                 4.4           330

β                         4.3           310

υ                         4.1           264

ι                          3.9           263

μ                         3.8           234

Alphard (α)         2.0           180

ζ                         3.1           167

δ                         4.1           160

ν                         3.1           144

γ                         3.0           134

ξ                         3.5           130

ε                         3.4           129

λ                         3.6           113

θ                         3.9           113

π                        3.5           101

Lacerta in 3D

3D Constellation post index and instructions

LACERTA, The Lizard

The pattern we see.

The 3D version. Click for a larger image (for phones and small screens).

PARALLEL VIEW:

With labels:

CROSS VIEW:

With labels:

Data:

Object                Magnitude     Dist. (light yrs.)

4                                 4.6         2,200

6                                 4.5         1.700

5                                 4.3         1,600

1                                 4.1            620

2                                 4.6            550

HR 8485                     4.5            480

11                               4.5            330

β                                 4.4            170

α                                 3.8            103

Who says blind people can't observe, too?

My goal is to share my enthusiasm for amateur astronomy observation with as many people as I can. I was thinking that the audio Space Walk Among the Stars guides would be great for blind and partially blind people, except it's completely visual based. So I thought, why not at least try to translate the visual aspect into the sense of touch and make a virtual Space Walk for someone who has never seen the night sky? So I did. Hopefully it conveys some of the pleasure and wonder of observing the night sky.

Virtual Space Walk for the Blind - Winter

Eyepiece cheat codes: Determining directions in the telescope

In the Space Walk Among the Stars audio guides, I frequently refer to compass directions or position angle. Sometimes I say "right" or "left" from a path we're following in the scope, but that really only applies to Newtonian reflectors, and for that I apologize.

Directions in the telescope can be confusing for beginners and even long time observers. It all depends on how many mirrors your telescope has. Generally, an odd number, and your telescope will mirror-reverse the view. An even number and your telescope will rotate the view 180 degrees.

A Newtonian reflector has two mirrors, the primary at the bottom of the tube and the secondary, the smaller one which directs the light to the eyepiece. In this case, an even number, therefore the view is rotated 180 degrees. (The view is rotated additionally because your focuser is usually located off to the side and your eye is positioned differently throughout the sky, so don’t assume south is always “up.”)

Most people with refractors and Cassegrain telescopes use a 90-degree mirror star diagonal before the eyepiece to give a more comfortable viewing position. That counts as one mirror in a refractor and three in a Cassegrain (which has a primary and secondary mirror plus the diagonal). An odd number, therefore these telescopes will keep the image correct side up, but mirror-reversed. (How your diagonal is rotated will affect what direction is actually "up" in your view.)

If you use an “erect image prism diagonal,” such as an Amici prism or pentaprism, in your refractor or Cassegrain, then you get a “correct image” that is neither rotated nor mirror-reversed (but there may be disadvantages that I won’t get into here).

One thing that stays the same regardless of your telescope type is that without any tracking motor engaged, the stars will always drift to the west (or, if you like, enter the field of view from the east). That’s because the Earth is rotating toward the east, and your telescope is fixed to the Earth. So you can always start with an easy reference point by noting the direction toward which the stars are drifting- that’s west. From there, you apply the correct diagram below and you are good to go!

If you’re interested in more information on how your equipment affects image orientation, see this article from the British Astronomical Association.

Choose the diagram that applies to your telescope

In all telescopes, stars and other objects will always drift to the WEST if the scope does not have a tracking motor operating. Know your telescope and directions in the eyepiece. 

The diagrams below show an example of how position angle (PA) is used to indicate the direction from a primary star to its secondary companion (PA 225 in this example) in reflectors and refractors/Cassegrains (with diagonal). You can also give any directions in the sky using PA or compass direction (270 or west, for example), as in many of these Space Walks. This view would be facing south.

This is for a NEWTONIAN REFLECTOR, such as a Dobsonian, and also for a straight-through finderscope. These show the image rotated 180 degrees from what you would see just looking up or in binoculars. North is COUNTER-CLOCKWISE from West:

 

Tip: In Sky Safari Pro, tap the field of view measurement in the upper right and select "Flip: Both" so the chart will match your view in the eyepiece. Note that it might still be rotated somewhat because of your eye's orientation to the eyepiece.

REFRACTORS and CASSEGRAIN telescopes, typically used WITH A MIRROR DIAGONAL, will show the image correct side up but mirror reversed from what you would see just looking up or in binoculars. North is CLOCKWISE from West:

Tip: In Sky Safari Pro, tap the field of view measurement in the upper right and select "Flip: Horz" so the chart will match your view in the eyepiece.

Added a new Space Walk Among the Stars - Binocular Edition

 

More fun with binoculars! I just added a new Space Walk Among the Stars - Binocular Edition, audio guided tour. This one is for the Winter sky, like the first one, but it uses the brightest star in the sky, Sirius, as a jumping off point to find some really nice star clusters including M41, M93, Collinder 140, M46, M47, M50, NGC 2423, and NGC 2360. 

Give it a try while these are still placed well in the evening once it gets dark, around 9 p.m. EDT. The Moon should be out of the way at that time from about March 28 through April 9, 2024.

Binocular Space Walk - From Sirius

Lyra in 3D

3D Constellation post index and instructions

LYRA, The Lyre

The pattern we see.

The 3D version. Click for a larger image (for phones and small screens).

PARALLEL VIEW:

With labels:

CROSS VIEW:

With labels:

Data:

Object                Magnitude     Dist. (light yrs.)

β                               3.5                960

δ²                              4.3                740

γ                               3.3                620

ε                               4.7                162

ζ                               4.3                156

Vega (α)                   0.0                  25