Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index The star Altair (α Aquilae), in the Aquila constellation, is a white star of visual magnitude 0.77 located 17 light years away. It is the twelfth brightest star in the skies and one of the closest visible stars. This star is a vertex of the Summer Triangle. Altair is most notable for its extremely rapid rotation; by measuring the width of its spectral lines, it was determined that its equator does a complete rotation in about 6 1/2 hours. In comparison, our star, the Sun, requires a little more than 25 days for a complete rotation. Altair, along with β and γ Aquilae, form the well-known line of stars sometimes referred to as the shaft of Aquila. The name Altair come from the arabic words al-nasr al-tair, which mean the flying eagle. Mythology See Chinese Valentines Day. This star was ill-omened in astrology, portending danger from reptiles. Altair 8800 was one of the first personal computers, released in 1975. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.