Slipping Toward Vega

Away from city lights, a moonless July sky displays about 2,500 naked-eye stars. With so many luminaries, how hard is it to select one standout to feature on this page? It’s a piece of cake. Most stars are dim, and most are cursed with monikers like HDE224334 or Zubeneschamali. Only a handful are brilliant and have popular names. Of those, just one floats overhead during the summer. So it’s automatic: Vega selects itself.