Phi

Its story

Phi Aquilae is a white A-type star in the Eagle, about 220 light-years away. The constellation, already identified by the Babylonians as a bird of prey four thousand years ago, crosses an especially rich region of the Milky Way —the galactic plane runs right through Aquila here, setting this star against a backdrop of countless more distant suns blurring into a luminous band. The light arriving now set out in the heart of the European Middle Ages.