An ancient eagle straddles the celestial equator. It's the constellation Aquila which has come to us from the Romans who adopted it from the Greeks who adopted from the Babylonians. Located along the Milky Way, Aquila is rich in deep sky objects.

Aquila the Eagle

Dark clouds in Aquila

Part of a dark expanse that splits the crowded plane of our Milky Way galaxy, the Aquila Rift arcs through the northern hemisphere's summer skies near bright star Altair and the Summer Triangle. In silhouette against the Milky Way's faint starlight, its dusty molecular clouds contain raw material to form hundreds of thousands of stars. This telescopic close-up looks toward the region at a fragmented Aquila dark cloud complex that stretches across a field of view slightly wider than the full moon. The dark clouds in Aquila are estimated to be some 600 light-years away. At that distance, this field of view spans about 7 light-years.

[Image Credit & Copyright: Adam Block, Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter, University of Arizona]
Astronomy Picture of the Day 2012-06-29

they are dark swirling clouds.