08/10/2020 – Ephemeris – The celestial eagle: Aquila

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Monday, August 10th. Today the Sun will be up for 14 hours and 15 minutes, setting at 8:55, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:41. The Moon, 1 day before last quarter, will rise at 12:20 tomorrow morning.

Aquila the eagle is a constellation that lies in the Milky Way. It’s in the southeastern sky as it gets dark. Its brightest star, Altair is one of the stars of the Summer Triangle, a group of three bright stars dominating the eastern sky in the evening now. Altair, in the head of the eagle, is flanked by two slightly dimmer stars, the shoulders of the eagle. The eagle is flying northeastward through the Milky Way. Its wings are seen in the wing tip stars. A curved group of stars to the lower right of Altair is its tail. Within Aquila the Milky Way shows many dark clouds as part of the Great Rift that splits it here. The other summer bird is Cygnus the swan above and left of Aquila, flying in the opposite direction.

The event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Aquila the Eagle in the southeastern sky. Created using Stellarium.

Annotated and animated photograph taken of Aquila August 13, 2018 during the Perseid meteor shower. Alas, no Perseids in this photograph. Taken by me and processed using Registax and GIMP.

Deneb with the other stars and constellations in the Summer Triangle. Created using Stellarium.