Observed Polaris on August 5, 2022
- I observed Polaris this evening. Mary and I are in the garage making tie-die shirts. The latest measurement puts the distance of Polaris at 447.6 light years, or around year 1575 at the time of this writing. However, at the time Polaris was receiving light from an earlier Earth. That light would not have travelled 447.6 light years from Earth because both stars are moving.
- Star Tales - Aquila (ianridpath.com)
Aquila represents an eagle, the thunderbird of the Greeks. The constellation’s name in Greek was Ἀετός, i.e. Aetos, meaning eagle. There are several explanations for the presence of this eagle in the sky. In Greek and Roman mythology, the eagle was the bird of Zeus, carrying (and retrieving) the thunderbolts which the wrathful god hurled at his enemies. But the eagle was involved in love as well as war.