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Far from any lights, the sky fills with stars. Drawn from real star positions; bigger dots are brighter stars. See it from a city or the suburbs in the app.

✨ Constellation

Aquila

The Eagle, flying along the Milky Way, with the bright star Altair.

Name means: The Eagle
Best seen: September evenings
Where to see it: Almost everywhere on Earth
Brightest star: Altair
Stars in the pattern: 8

Did you know?

Altair spins so fast, about once every nine hours, that it bulges out around its middle.
Altair is one corner of the Summer Triangle, with Vega and Deneb.

In this part of the sky

Lyra The Lyre: small, but home to Vega, one of the brightest stars in the sky. Cygnus The Swan, flying along the Milky Way. Its brightest stars form the Northern Cross.

More NASA photos of AquilaStraight from NASA’s image library, in the app

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All of night sky

Orion The Hunter, with three bright stars in a row for his belt. Ursa Major The Great Bear, home of the Big Dipper. Ursa Minor The Little Bear, with Polaris at the tip of its tail. Cassiopeia A bright W of five stars, named after a boastful queen. Scorpius The Scorpion, with red Antares at its heart. Leo The Lion, whose head is a backwards question mark of stars.

Facts: Star patterns: d3-celestial (IAU figures, Hipparcos star data). Stories: traditional Greek and Roman myths. Open Aquila in the app.