How to spot the constellation Aquila and its deep-sky objects

LAST month, we looked for the constellation of Cygnus, the swan. I like to think of our next target, the constellation of Aquila, the eagle, as a little sister to Cygnus: it is also named after a bird, has a similar cross shape and sits next to Cygnus in the sky. Aquila was the bird that carried thunderbolts for Zeus in Greek mythology and for Jupiter in Roman mythology.

We used the pattern of stars known as the summer triangle (pictured) to find Cygnus, and we can do the same for Aquila. The triangle is made up of three …