It took decades to determine whether or not 18 Aquilae is a variable star. It was used as a standard star in Benjamin Apthorp Gould's Uranometria Argentina, published in 1879. Gould marked the star with an asterisk, indicating that he thought it is a variable star.[10]Gustav Müller and Paul Kempf noted Gould's opinion in their 1894 work Potsdamer Photometrische Durchmusterung, but stated that their numerous observations did not confirm that the star is variable.[11] That same year, Seth Carlo Chandler reported that 18 Aquilae is a variable star. He stated the star showed an "unmistakable periodicity" and derived a period of 4.986 days - nearly 4 times larger than what the period is now known to be.[12] Chandler gave the star the name Y Aquilae. In 1898, Edward Charles Pickering and Paul S. Yendell announced that their observations of the star "fail to show any evidence of variation".[13] In 1966, Robert Arnold Breinhorst established that Y Aquilae is variable in his PhD thesis.[14]
The inner pair of stars in this system form a spectroscopic binary with a combined magnitude of 5.44 and an orbital period of 1.302 days. The primary component is a giant star with a stellar classification of B8 III.[2] Because the orbital plane is inclined near the line of sight, two form an eclipsing binary system. The eclipse of the primary component causes a 0.04 drop in magnitude, while the eclipse of the secondary results in a decrease of 0.03.[16] At an angular separation of 0.310 arcseconds is the magnitude 6.39 tertiary component.[9] This system has a high peculiar velocity of 29.7 ± 3.9 km/s relative to the neighboring stars.[17]
^ abcLevato, H. (January 1975). "Rotational velocities and spectral types for a sample of binary systems". Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series. 19: 91–99. Bibcode:1975A&AS...19...91L.
^ abOsawa, K.; Hata, S. (1962). "Three-color photometry of B8-A2 stars (II)". Annals of the Tokyo Astronomical Observatory. 7: 209. Bibcode:1962AnTok...7..209O.
^Samus, N. N.; Durlevich, O. V.; et al. (2009). "VizieR Online Data Catalog: General Catalogue of Variable Stars (Samus+ 2007-2013)". VizieR On-line Data Catalog: B/GCVS. Originally Published in: 2009yCat....102025S. 1. Bibcode:2009yCat....102025S.
^ abDe Greve, J. P.; Vanbeveren, D. (1980). "Close Binary Systems Before and after Mass Transfer - a Comparison of Observations and Theory". Astrophysics and Space Science. 68 (2): 433. Bibcode:1980Ap&SS..68..433D. doi:10.1007/BF00639709. S2CID123281741.
^Breinhorst, Robert Arnold (1966). Der veränderliche Y Aquilae: lichtelektrische Dreifarbenphotometrie zur Untersuchg der System-Eigenschaften. University of Bonn. Bibcode:1966PhDT.......142B.