Star profile
Eta Aquilae
Variable starWhat is Eta Aquilae
Eta Aquilae is one of the first Cepheids ever recognised: in 1784 Edward Pigott noticed her brightness changing rhythmically, and that pulse, repeated in hundreds of similar stars, would a century later become the ruler with which we measure the universe. Her light swings from magnitude 3.5 to 4.3 every 7.18 days: a yellow supergiant 3,400 times more luminous than the Sun, beating at 1,380 light-years.
Where it is and when to see it
Eta Aquilae lies in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is July: the Sun sits at the opposite point of the sky and the star culminates around midnight. How high it climbs above the horizon depends on the latitude you watch from.
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The signature wall
Stelvia's sky works like a signature wall: anyone can leave their name and a message on a real star, and that signature goes up on the map for everyone to read. Signing is free.
A signature without a lock can be replaced by someone else's. The lock makes the signature permanent and lets you choose a symbolic name for the star, always shown next to the star's catalogue identifier. How the lock works
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A public signature from a real person. The chosen name is a symbolic denomination within Stelvia, with no official standing or IAU recognition: the sky is not for sale and belongs to no one.
Astronomical data for Eta Aquilae
- Constellation
- Aquila
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.87
- Distance
- 1382.2 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 298.118° · Dec 1.006°
- Catalogue
- HIP 97804 · HD 187929
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Aquila
Aquila has 72 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- AltairAlpha Aquilae0.76
- TarazedGamma Aquilae2.72
- OkabZeta Aquilae2.99
- Delta Aquilae3.36
- Lambda Aquilae3.43
- AlshainBeta Aquilae3.71
- Epsilon Aquilae4.02
- 12 Aquilae4.02