Aquila

Aquila lies close to the celestial equator and is visible in the months around June. Aquila was one of the 48 constellations described by the second-century astronomer Ptolemy.

It is dominated by the bright star Altair, which forms one vertex of the Summer Triangle asterism and is the twelfth brightest star in the sky.

The Milky Way passes through the constellation and so it contains numerous open clusters, though they are not as rich as the vast clouds of stars visible to its north in Cygnus.

Aquila is depicted as an eagle, identified in Greek mythology. The eagle was associated with Zeus (Jupiter), either as a servant who carried Zeus’ messages down to humans on Earth or as a disguise taken by Zeus in order to avoid his wife Hera when he was up to some mischief. One story of Aquila’s service to Zeus was that of Ganymede, who was a very gentle, kind shepherd and the most handsome mortal the gods and goddesses had ever seen. One day, the great eagle Aquila swooped down from the sky and, landing near the startled Ganymede, told him that Zeus had sent him to carry Ganymede to Mount Olympus. And so, climbing up on the eagle’s broad back, Ganymede was taken up to Mount Olympus where he served the gods by bringing them water.

The constellation was also known as Vultur volans (the flying vulture) to the Romans, not to be confused with Vultur cadens which was their name for Lyra. It is often held to represent the eagle which held Zeus’s/Jupiter’s thunderbolts in Greco-Roman mythology.

The Indian constellation name for Aquila is ಗರುಡ (Garuda).

 

Aquila contains:

• Stars
  • Altair (mag 0.9)
  • Tarazed (mag 2.7)
  • ζ-Aql (mag 3.0)
  • θ-Aql (mag 3.2)
  • δ-Aql (mag 3.4)
  • λ-Aql (mag 3.4)
  • Alshain (mag 3.7)
  • η-Aql (mag 4.0)
  • i-Aql (mag 4.0)
  • ε-Aql (mag 4.0)
  • l-Aql (mag 4.3)
  • ι-Aql (mag 4.4)
  • μ-Aql (mag 4.5)
  • ν-Aql (mag 4.7)
  • Libertas (mag 4.7)
  • 70-Aql (mag 4.9)
  • 69-Aql (mag 4.9)
  • κ-Aql (mag 4.9)
  • f-Aql (mag 5.0)
  • 4-Aql (mag 5.0)
  • e-Aql (mag 5.0)
  • Y Aql (mag 5.1)
  • V1288 Aql (mag 5.1)
  • 37-Aql (mag 5.1)
  • O-Aql (mag 5.1)
• Open Clusters
  • NGC 6709 (mag 6.7)
  • NGC 6755 (mag 7.5)
  • NGC 6738 (mag 8.3)
  • NGC 6756 (mag 10.6)
  • IC 1298
  • NGC 6843
  • NGC 6840
  • NGC 6837
  • NGC 6828
  • NGC 6735
• Globular Clusters
  • NGC 6760 (mag 9.0)
  • NGC 6749 (mag 12.4)
  • NGC 6941 (mag 13.3)
• Galaxy
  • • NGC 6906 (mag 12.7)
    • IC 1317 (mag 13.4)
    • NGC 6929 (mag 13.5)
    • NGC 6915 (mag 13.8)
    • NGC 6926 (mag 13.9)
    • NGC 6922 (mag 14.0)
    • NGC 6821 (mag 14.0)
    • NGC 6900 (mag 14.2)
    • NGC 6814 (mag 14.2)
    • NGC 6865 (mag 14.7)
    • NGC 6901 (mag 14.9)
    • IC 1327 (mag 15.0)
    • IC 5006
    • IC 5000