Aquila

Aquila is a constellation in the northern sky. Its name is Latin for 'eagle' and it represents the bird who carried Zeus/Jupiter's thunderbolts in Greco-Roman mythology. Aquila lies just a few degrees North of the celestial equator. The alpha star, Altair, is a vertex of the Summer Triangle asterism. The constellation is best seen in the summer as it is located along the Milky Way. Because of this location along the line of our galaxy, many clusters and nebulae are found within its borders, but they are dim and there are few galaxies. ... Stars. Aquila, which lies in the Milky Way, contains many rich starfields and has been the location of many novae. α Aql (Altair) is the brightest star in this constellation and one of the closest naked-eye stars to Earth at a distance of 17 light-years. Its name comes from the Arabic phrase "al-nasr al-tair", meaning "the flying eagle". Altair has a magnitude of 0.76. β Aql (Alshain) is a yellow-hued star of magnitude 3.7, 45 light-years from Earth. Its name comes from the Arabic phrase "shahin-i tarazu", meaning "the balance"; this name referred to Altair, Alshain, and Tarazed. γ Aql (Tarazed) is an orange-hued giant star of magnitude 2.7, 460 light-years from Earth. Its name, like that of Alshain, comes from the Arabic for "the balance", "shahin-i tarazu". ζ Aql is a blue-white-hued star of magnitude 3.0, 83 light-years from Earth. η Aql is a yellow-white-hued supergiant star, 1200 light-years from Earth. Among the brightest Cepheid variable stars, it has a minimum magnitude of 4.4 and a maximum magnitude of 3.5 with a period of 7.2 days. ... Novae. Two major novae have been observed in Aquila: the first one was in 389 BC and was recorded as being as bright as Venus; the other (Nova Aquilae 1918) briefly shone brighter than Altair, the brightest star in Aquila. Deep-sky objects. Three interesting planetary nebulae lie in Aquila: (1) NGC 6804 shows a small but bright ring. (2) NGC 6781 which bears some resemblance with the Owl Nebula in Ursa Major. (3) NGC 6751: also known as the Glowing Eye, a planetary nebula. [Aquila (constellation). Wikipedia]