Constellation Aquarius: Zodiac constellation straddling the celestial equator
Aquarius is a constellation of the zodiac.
It sits between Capricornus and Pisces. Its name is Latin for "water-carrier" or "cup-carrier", and its symbol is 
(Unicode ♒), which represents water. The astronomer Ptolemy listed Aquarius when he made a list of 48 constellations. It is also one of the 88 modern constellations.
| Constellation | |
 List of stars in Aquarius | |
| Abbreviation | Aqr |
|---|---|
| Genitive | Aquarii |
| Pronunciation | /əˈkwɛəriəs/, genitive /əˈkwɛəriaɪ/ |
| Symbolism | the Water-Bearer |
| Right ascension | 23 |
| Declination | −15 |
| Quadrant | SQ4 |
| Area | 980 sq. deg. (10th) |
| Main stars | 10, 22 |
| Bayer/Flamsteed stars | 97 |
| Stars with planets | 11 |
| Stars brighter than 3.00m | 2 |
| Stars within 10.00 pc (32.62 ly) | 7 |
| Brightest star | β Aqr (Sadalsuud) (2.91m) |
| Messier objects | 3 |
| Meteor showers | March Aquariids Eta Aquariids Delta Aquariids Iota Aquariids |
| Bordering constellations | Pisces Pegasus Equuleus Delphinus Aquila Capricornus Piscis Austrinus Sculptor Cetus |
| Visible at latitudes between +65° and −90°. Best visible at 21:00 (9 p.m.) during the month of October. | |
Aquarius is a constellation also known as the Water Bearer and was a servant to the gods. He was also a human at one time. He was the son of King Tors. When he was human, his name was Ganymede. Usually when you see him in the sky, you can see him pouring water into the mouth of a fish; or Pisces.
There is a story of Ganymede when he was watching over his father’s sheep, he was captured and held captive by the Goddess of the Dawn.
In another version of the story, Zeus is captured by Ganymede. Than Zeus calls over his pet eagle to grab Ganymede and take him to the top of Mount Olympus and serve as a servant to the gods.
One man named Robert Graves thought that the origin of Aquarius was in Egypt. He thought that Aquarius represented the Nile River. He also thought that Aquarius was the God of the Nile. The Nile is just a river, but Robert thought that the river was water pouring out of Aquarius’ jar to make the Nile.
As a constellation, he comes after the constellation Capricornus just by one month and is south of the constellation Pegasus and north of Pisces, the brightest star in the night sky.
Deep-sky objects
References
- Aquarius, the Water Bearer. Pepperdine University, n.d. Web. 20 Dec. 2012. <http://faculty.pepperdine.edu/dgreen/>.
- Lesikar, Arnold V. "Constellation List." Constellation List. St. Cloud State University, n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2012. <http://domeofthesky.com/clicks/constlist.html>.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia Simple English article Aquarius (constellation), which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license ("CC BY-SA 3.0"); additional terms may apply (view authors). Content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
®Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wiki Foundation, Inc. Wiki Simple English (DUHOCTRUNGQUOC.VN) is an independent company and has no affiliation with Wiki Foundation.