Aquila

is associated with three different animals, the scorpion, the snake, and the eagle, and the eagle is sometimes interchangeable with the phoenix.

So here you have Scorpio, Aquarius, Leo, and Taurus, and Scorpio is the eagle, and here is why, because Ophiuchus is standing on him, and he is holding the serpent, and what's on the end of the serpent is Aquila the eagle.

We actually just saw this the other night, and it was pretty amazing.

So here in Hawaii, we could see it very clearly.

And of course, here it is.

John the Apostle is a fucus on top of Scorpio.

Scorpio is on the other side there, but then there's the Aquila.

There's the eagle.

And NGC 6781 is well-placed, as is B 142, and should have 143 there as well.

That's Barnard's E up in, uh, constellation of Aquila.

What is NGC 6781? That's a planetary nebula.

Might just be one of the finest NGCs, uh, but 11 and a half magnitude there.

Um, also up, uh, in Aquila and, uh, sort of in the northern side.

Looks, uh, pretty cool, like a halo circle giant donut and, uh-

Yeah.

Um, my list is that I'm observing all of, uh, H.D. Curtis', uh, planetary nebulas that he, uh, put into a catalog back in 1918.

...

Aquila.

Makes a triangle with, uh, Altair, so the brightest star of Aquila, and Delphinus.

So it's, it's small, but highly recognizable once you spot it, right? And, and-

Yeah, it's a little arrow.

So where is Sagittarius, first of all? So Sagittarius is a small, faint constellation.

It's near Cygnus and Aquila.

It makes a triangle with Altair, so the brightest star of Aquila, and Delphinus.

So it's...

It's small but highly recognisable once you spot it, right? Yeah, it's a little

And should have 143 there as well.

That's Barnard's E up in constellation of Aquila.

What is NGC 6781? That's a planetary nebula.

One of the finest NGCs, but 11 and a half magnitude there.

Also up in Aquila and sort of in the northern side.

Looks pretty cool.

Like a halo circle giant donut.

It is.

Uh, the region to the north of Aquila is populated by small constellations.

Some are well-defined.

Others are, frankly, rather obscure.

Okay.

But Delphinus is much, much bigger, and it's, it's quite well-defined, really.

Uh, an interesting fact about Delphinus, actually, is that the star Rho Aquilae sits in it-

Oh, really?

Just below Capricornus on the eastern horizon, you'll see the constellation Aquarius, the water carrier to the gods.

Greek mythology describes Aquarius as the most beautiful looking boy that ever lived, and so was carried from Earth up to Mount Olympus by Zeus in the guise of Aquila the eagle to become the water carrier.

The two brightest stars in Aquarius are Alpha and Beta Aquarii, a pair of luminous yellow supergiants that were once spectral type B blue-white stars.

The pair are moving through space perpendicular to the plane of the Milky Way galaxy.

Vega has about twice the mass of our sun, and it's a relatively young star, less than five hundred million years old, and it's also fairly close, just twenty-five light years away.

Now, once again, due to the precession of Earth's rotational axis, Vega used to be the northern pole star around fourteen thousand years ago, and it will do so again in another twelve thousand years' time.

Just above Vega is Alpha Aquilae or Altair, the brightest star in the constellation Aquila.

It's a spectral type A white-yellow star with about twice the mass of our sun.

And when we add Altair, Altair's been dancing with Pluto for quite some time.

Altair, as I have said before, is the brightest star in the constellation Aquila, the eagle.

And really, it's inviting us to remember that there's a bigger picture that's happening here.

And in Greco-Roman mythology, Aquila became associated with the eagle of Zeus, the bird that carried thunderbolts.

So Altair gives Pluto an image that I just kind of want to name here.

It's the eagle's perspective.