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Fred Watson on Aquila
Aquila's spread-winged pose makes it easy to see this beautiful constellation as the eagle that carried Zeus’s thunderbolts.
The Romans believed Aquila was a vulture, and in Hindu tradition it is the half-man, half-eagle god Garuda. In the Chinese love story Qi Xi, Altair (the bright star in Aquila) and his wife Vega are forever separated by the Milky Way, as Vega’s punishment for marrying a mortal.
About Aquila
The best feature in Aquila you can see with the naked-eye is the bright star Altair, and the line of three stars it makes with Alschain and Tarazed (β- and γ-Aquilae) on either side of it.
Altair spins incredibly rapidly – rotating once every six hours, compared with the sun’s 25-day rotation. The consequence of Altair's speedy rotation is the celestial equivalent of middle-aged spread: centrifugal force makes it bulge around its equator.
With a small telescope you can see one of the constellation’s double stars, 15 Aql at the tail end of the eagle. And above Altair in the Milky Way the planetary nebula NGC 6803 is a small but bright ring.
Did you know?
Aquila has been the site of two spectacular nova over the last few thousand years. A nova is a small dying star that suddenly becomes incredibly bright for a short time (as distinct from a supernova, which is created by a large star that dies in a massive explosion).
Novas happen when a white dwarf – a star that’s exhausted all its fuel and collapsed to a very small, hot dense ball – has a companion star that becomes a red giant – the stage in a sun-like star’s death just before it becomes a white dwarf. The white dwarf’s immense gravity can suck hydrogen from the oversized red giant. When the hydrogen hits the incredibly hot surface of the white dwarf, a huge nuclear reaction takes place on the star’s surface, fusing the hydrogen to helium and making the once dim white dwarf burn so brightly it can outshine Venus (389 BC) and Altair (1918).
Where is Aquila?
Aquila lies near the celestial equator – midway between the North and South Celestial Poles. So for most of the year it’s too far north for us to see in the southern hemisphere, but from July to November we can spot it in the northern Milky Way.
Look for the bright star Altair on the eastern edge of the Milky Way – it’s at the top of the eagle’s chest. The wings spread just above Altair, and the legs and tail follow.
Indigenous stories of Aquila
The three named stars of Aquila – Altair, Alschain and Tarazed (α-, β- and γ-Aquilae) feature prominently in Indigenous stories.
The Kulin and Wotjobaluk people of Victoria believe the stars are a male spirit and his two wives. The Kulin call Altair Eaglehawk, the great man, and the stars on each side of him are his wives, Kunnawarra, the black swans. The Wotjobaluk believe Altair is Totyerguil, the son of the mallee-hen, and the other stars his wives Ku-ur-rook and Boi Boi.
In central desert stories, Altair is a young man, and the stars on either side are the feather decorations on his arms.