Although the Eagle is in the middle of the Milky Way, there are only a few deep-sky objects visible in this constellation because the dust clouds of the Great Rift swallow lots of light. It contains many planetary nebulae, but you need a telescope to see them.

The 0,93^m bright α Aquilae (Atair or Altair) is only 16.7 light-years away and has ten times the luminosity of our Sun. The star is probably much flattened, as it rotates very quickly – It rotates once around its axis every 6.5 hours.