Aquila
What is Aquila?
Constellations· Summer evenings (N) · southern corner of the Summer Triangle. The eagle of Zeus. Bright Altair marks the southern corner of the Summer Triangle; in East Asian lore it is the cowherd gazing across the Milky Way at the weaver girl, Vega. Altair is a near neighbour, 16.7 light-years away, spinning so fast it is flattened.
📍 Visible from where you are right now — computed in your browser
bearing · altitude · rise time · best time tonight
Where Aquila is in your sky right now: https://nowsky.org/solar/sky?sel=con:Aquila — location and time set automatically, no login.
Stars of the figure
| Star | Magnitude |
|---|---|
| Altair | 0.8 |
The 1 brightest of the 7 stars used in the figure (6 lines). Lower magnitude means brighter.
Deep-sky objects near this constellation
Constellation basics
| Season | summer evenings, July–September |
|---|---|
| Brightest star | Altair (0.8) |
| How to find | the Summer Triangle's southern star, flanked by two fainter ones |
| Area rank | 22nd of 88 |
Figures are representative approximations. Source: compiled from NASA and IAU public data.
Frequently asked
- When can I see Aquila?
- summer evenings, July–September.
- How do I find Aquila?
- the Summer Triangle's southern star, flanked by two fainter ones.
- What is the brightest star in Aquila?
- Altair, magnitude 0.8.
- Where is Aquila in the sky right now?
- Open the sky view for your location and time and it shows the position in the sky right now.
The nova that flared in Aquila in June 1918
On the night of 8 June 1918 a new star appeared in Aquila. Named V603 Aquilae, the nova brightened within a day to magnitude −0.5, second only to Sirius, and it remains the brightest nova since the 1600s. The First World War was in its final months, and several accounts record soldiers in the trenches watching the star.
A nova is the explosion, on the surface of a white dwarf, of hydrogen drawn from a companion; the star is not destroyed and returns to its former brightness within weeks. V603 is now a faint 11th-magnitude binary whose stars circle each other every 3.3 hours, and the shell thrown off in the outburst has been seen expanding. Aquila in the summer Milky Way holds the spot where, for a while, a star was the main event in the sky.
The constellation in depth
Aquila is the eagle that carried the thunderbolts of Zeus, or the one that snatched the youth Ganymede up to Olympus. In East Asia Altair is the cowherd and Vega, across the Milky Way in Lyra, the weaver girl; the tale of their yearly meeting on a bridge of magpies on the seventh night of the seventh month comes from these two summer stars.
Altair lies just 16.7 light-years away and spins once every 8.9 hours, so fast that its equator bulges 22 percent wider than its poles. Tarazed and Alshain sit close on either side, making the trio easy to recognise. In 1918 Nova Aquilae, V603, flared here to outshine every star but Sirius — the brightest nova of the twentieth century.
On summer evenings look overhead for the three brightest stars on either side of the Milky Way: Vega, Deneb and Altair form the Summer Triangle. The southernmost, with a fainter star on each side, is Altair, and the eagle's wings spread north and south along the Milky Way. Set the Sky view to an August night to see it riding the band of the galaxy.
Related
Figures are representative approximations. Simulated positions use J2000 mean elements.