Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Friday, August 17th.  The sun rises at 6:47.  It’ll be up for 13 hours and 56 minutes, setting at 8:43.  The moon is new today, and won’t be visible.

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 seen now in the eastern sky in the evening.  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, which I talked about earlier this year, above and left of Aquila, flying in the opposite direction.

Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The constellations Lyra, Cygnus and Aquila. Created using Stellarium.