Look Up

As you look west, there’s a very bright star with another close to it to the left or north of it. These two stars are how I was able to spot this constellation. That bright star is the brightest in the constellation and the 12th brightest in the sky and is called Altair. Its name comes from an Arabic phrase “an-nasr at-ta’ir,” which means the flying eagle. It’s also known as Alpha Aquilae (α Aquilae). It is a main sequence multi-star system that has three companions. It’s also one of the closest stars to our planet at just 16.8 light-years away.

The star to the left or north of it is Tarazed or Tarazet and is the second brightest star in Aquila. Its name comes from a Persian phrase “šāhin tarāzu,” which is “the beam of the scale.” It’s also called Gamma Aquilae (γ Aquilae). It’s a bright giant that is about 461 light years away. Tarazed is 2,960 times more brilliant than the sun and is a known source of X-rays.

The third brightest star in the constellation is to the north, or left, of Tarazed is called Epsilon Aquilae Deneb el Okab. Its name is derived from the Arabic phrase “ðanab al-cuqāb,” which means the tail of the eagle.

That’s where things get a little confusing because there’s another star in the constellation that is also called Deneb el Okab but the other one is Deneb el Okab Zeta Aquilae. Epsilon Aquilae is often referred to as Deneb el Okab Borealis or Deneb el Okab Australis. It’s a triple star system that’s about 154 light-years away. To add to the confusion, depending on what star map or illustration of the constellation you look at, determines whether the star is in the tail. When I look at the illustration on my star app, it looks like this star is where his left wing when the eagle is facing you.

We’ll continue with the rest of Aquila’s stars next week.