Altair (star) definition of Altair (star) in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Altair (ăltä`ĭr), brightest star in the constellation Aquila Aquila [Lat.,=the eagle], equatorial constellation located N of Sagittarius and Capricornus, lying partly in the Milky Way. It is sometimes depicted as an eagle. It contains the bright star Altair (Alpha Aquilae) and the pulsating variable star Eta Aquilae.
..... Click the link for more information. (Eagle); Bayer designation α Aquilae; 1992 position R.A. 19^h50.5^m, Dec. +8°51'. Its apparent magnitude magnitude, in astronomy, measure of the brightness of a star or other celestial object. The stars cataloged by Ptolemy (2d cent. A.D.), all visible with the unaided eye, were ranked on a brightness scale such that the brightest stars were of 1st magnitude and the
..... Click the link for more information. is 0.74, making it one of the 20 brightest stars in the sky, and it is of spectral class spectral class, in astronomy, a classification of the stars by their spectrum and luminosity . In 1885, E. C. Pickering began the first extensive attempt to classify the stars spectroscopically.
..... Click the link for more information. A7 IV,V. Altair is one of the nearest bright stars, its distance being 16.8 light-years.

A microcomputer kit introduced in late 1974 from Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS). It sold for $400 and used an 8080 microprocessor. In 1975, it was packaged with the Microsoft MBASIC interpreter written by Paul Allen and Bill Gates. Although computer kits were advertised earlier by others, an estimated 10,000 Altairs were sold, making it the first commercially successful microcomputer.

Altair 8800 Computer
The first successful microcomputer and the first commercial computer that came with a Microsoft product. (Image courtesy of The Computer History Museum, www.computerhistory.org)

Altair (redirected from Altair (star))

Altair
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