Altair
High-res photo of Altair
Altair (α Aquilae) is a star in the Aquila constellation. It is a white star of visual magnitude 0.77, the twelfth brightest star in the skies. It is a vertex of the Summer Triangle.
Located 17 light years away from Earth, it is one of the closest stars visible to the naked eye. The name Altair comes from the Arabic words al-nasr al-tair, which mean the flying eagle.
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 (various other sources give 9 hours, or 10.4 hours). In comparison, our star, the Sun, requires a little more than 25 days for a complete rotation. As a result of its rapid rotation, Altair is oblate: its equatorial diameter is at least 14 percent greater than its polar diameter.
Altair, along with β and γ Aquilae, form the well-known line of stars sometimes referred to as the shaft of Aquila.
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The star Altair was ill-omened in astrology, portending danger from reptiles.
The MITS Altair 8800 was one of the first hobbyist/home/personal microcomputers, announced in Popular Electronics magazine in January 1975. The MITS Altair is historically important because it was the machine for which Microsoft made their first product – Altair BASIC.
The Altair computer was named after the star because the daughter of the man responsible for coming up with a suitable name, when asked what she thought the computer should be called, was watching an episode of Star Trek where the Starship Enterprise had the Altair as its destination. So Altair it was.
Mythology
Astrology
Computing
Sci-fi
External link