● Altair Altair is a star in Aquila. ##### ########### ############### ################# ################# ################# ############### ########### ##### Type White main-sequence star Constellation Aquila Magnitude 0.8 Spectral type A7V Distance 17 light years Double star components 165.2″ apart You need naked eye from a dark sky Known as Bayer α Aql Yale HR 7557 More information about Altair Altair takes its name from an-nasr at-ta'ir النسر الطائر, "the flying eagle", set against Vega's falling one. In Chinese the same star is the Cowherd, kept apart from the Weaver Girl by the Milky Way and allowed across it one night a year. Etymology From Arabic Reading al-Ta'ir · الطائر Literally the flying one Bayer lettered the stars of each constellation in his Uranometria of 1603, in order of brightness. He was working from Tycho's magnitudes by eye, and the order he recorded is often wrong. First published in 1930 by Yale astronomer Frank Schlesinger, and maintained since, the Yale Bright Star Catalogue lists every star down to magnitude 6.5. It contains 9,110 stars. where it is tonight: skymap.sh/Altair