Aquila
The eagle with the blazing eye
Best on June–August evenings · celestial equator (visible from both hemispheres).
Aquila the Eagle soars along the celestial equator, making it one of those rare constellations visible from virtually everywhere on Earth. It sits right in the heart of the summer Milky Way, and its brilliant lead star Altair is one of the closest and brightest stars in the whole night sky. A short diagonal line of three stars — Altair flanked by Tarazed and Alshain — makes the eagle surprisingly easy to pin down.
How to find it
Look for Aquila on summer evenings, when it climbs high in the south for northern observers and rides well above the horizon from the southern hemisphere too. The easiest route is through the Summer Triangle: find brilliant Vega, then let your eye drift south until you hit an unmistakably bright star with a slightly fainter one on each side in a short diagonal row — that central star is Altair, and you've landed on Aquila. The whole constellation stretches north and south of that trio like wings spread in a glide.
Brightest stars
Altair dominates at magnitude 0.77 — one of the brightest stars in the summer sky and one of the nearest to Earth. Orange-tinted Tarazed glows at magnitude 2.72 just to one side, with Deneb el Okab (magnitude 2.99) completing the brightest trio.
Worth seeing
The diagonal line of Altair, Tarazed, and Alshain is the real showpiece — three stars at noticeably different brightnesses in a tight, angled row, sitting right against the glow of the summer Milky Way streaming behind them.
Frequently asked
When is Aquila visible?
Summer evenings, roughly June through August, when it climbs high in the south for northern hemisphere observers. Because it sits on the celestial equator, it's also well placed from the southern hemisphere during the same months.
What are the brightest stars in Aquila?
Altair leads at magnitude 0.77 and is one of the brightest stars in the entire night sky. Tarazed (2.72) and Deneb el Okab (2.99) are next, followed by Al Thalimain (3.44) and Alshain (3.71).
Which hemisphere can see Aquila?
Both. Aquila straddles the celestial equator, so it's accessible from the northern and southern hemispheres alike — one of the reasons Altair is such a universally familiar summer star.
Nearby constellations
Delphinus · Sagittarius · Capricornus · Ophiuchus · Lyra · Hercules · Cygnus · Aquarius