Aquila the Eagle Flies High in the Southern Sky This Week

[Judi Lynn]

By Joe Rao 6 hours ago



Aquila is particularly impressive in the southern sky this week.(Image: © Starry Night software)

If you look high up in the southern sky this week around midnight, you'll be able to see a pattern of stars that — at least to me — resembles a jet plane flying in a southbound direction.

Of course, well before the invention of such flying machines, ancient stargazers visualized something else among these stars that soared across the sky: an eagle, which they named Aquila.

Whether you envision it as a great bird or an aircraft, Aquila is certainly impressive. Its distinguishing feature is the head, which is composed of a line of three stars. These are easily recognized because they are close together, nearly equally spaced and lie at some distance from any other bright star.

This trio is sometimes referred to as the "Family of Aquila" or the "Shaft of Aquila." They are a summer landmark with one faint star, another of medium brightness and the middle star by far the brightest: yellowish-white Altair, the 12th brightest star in the sky.

More:
https://www.space.com/aquila-southern-winter-sky.html

[progree]

1. I wish I could see all that. I only see maybe the 20 brightest stars in the sky

So instead of being able to see Aquila, I see maybe its 3 brightest stars, and except for Altair, the other two just barely.

So I have to make do with things like summer triangle (Aquila - Deneb - Vega), a bit of the Swan (part of its "Northern Cross" that includes Deneb) the Big Dipper, Arcturus, part of the Little Dipper, Jupiter and Saturn, and that's about it at this time of night this time of year.

[Callmecrazy]

2. I'll be in Key West for the next two weeks...

and I never forget my telescope. A 9.25" Schmidt-Cassegrain OTA on a German equatorial mount. Talk about dark skies! Wow.
Gonna take some pictures this year.