Look Up

On my star app, these stars look like they’re in the head of the eagle. It contains eight named stars but I could only see seven.

Last week we learned about another set of stars that were to the right or north of Altair and Tarazed but are closer to the horizon named Deneb el Okab Zeta Aquilae (ζ Aquilae) and Deneb el Okab Epsilon Aquilae (ε Aquilae).

On my star app, these stars are near the eagle’s left wing when he’s facing you. Now we’ll finally observe the stars that are on the left side or south side of Altair and Tarazed.

The first one is just to south, or left, of Altair is called Alshain. Its name comes from the Perso-Arabic aš-šāhīn, which means “the (peregrine) falcon.” It’s a bit farther away from Altair than Tarazed but sometimes is very faint and hard to see. It’s also known as Beta Aquilae (β Aquilae).

Even though it’s only the seventh brightest star it was still designated Beta Aquilae. It’s a subgiant that’s almost 45 light-years away.

This star has a companion named Beta Aquilae B and it’s a red dwarf. Alshain is six times brighter than our sun. There’s another star that’s to the left, or south, of Alshain but farther away and it’s called Tseen Foo. Its name is derived from the Mandarin word tianfu, which means “the heavenly rafter” and “drumsticks.” It’s also known as Theta Aquilae (θ Aquilae). It’s a binary star that’s approximately 287 light-years away. Tseen Foo is a blue-white giant.

The last visible star is well below Alshain and much closer to the horizon. It’s called Al Thalimain. It’s also known as Lambda Aquilae (λ Aquilae) and is a blue-white dwarf. Like the other set of stars and to make things confusing, the last named star in Aquila is also called Al Thalimain but is known as Iota Aquilae (ι Aquilae). Sometimes Lambda Aquilae is called Al Thalimain Prior to differentiate it from Iota Aquilae. Iota Aquilae is 125 light-years away.

Look Up appears in the weekend edition. If you have any astronomical questions or facts you’d like to share email news@smdailyjournal.com with the subject line “Look Up.”