Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Thursday, August 17th. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 58 minutes, setting at 8:45, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:48. The Moon, 1 day past new, will set at 9:40 this evening.

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, the group of three bright stars high in the east to southeastern 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. It was said this was the eagle that attended the Roman god Jupiter.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT –4 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Animated Cygnus finder chart. Two small constellations are found near the head of Aquila. Created using Stellarium. Near the beak of the image of Aquila is Sagitta the arrow. A bit further left of Altair are the distinctive six stars of Delphinus the dolphin, as if it is jumping out of the water. Created using Stellarium and GIMP.

Animated photograph of Aquila the eagle with constellation lines taken on August 13, 2018, during the Perseid meteor shower. Alas, there are no Perseids in this photograph. The reddening of the image was in part due to the smoke and haze if the western states wildfires that year. Taken by me and processed using Registax and GIMP.