02Aquarius, The Water Bearer
NAME: Aquarius (uh-KWAIR-ee-us)
SEASON: Summer
CULMINATION: midnight, 26 August
ABBREVIATION: Aqr
GENITIVE: Aquarii (uh-KWAIR-ee-ih)
NEIGHBORS: Aql, Cap, Cet, Del, Equ, Peg, PsA, Psc, Scl
BINOCULAR OBJECTS: NGC 6981 (M72), NGC 7089 (M2)
URBAN OBJECTS: NGC 7009, NGC 7089 (M2)
Aquarius, the Water Bearer, is a large constellation, ranking 10th in size among the 88 constellations. It covers 980 square degrees of the celestial sphere, or about 2.3%. Despite its size, Aquarius is not a prominent constellation. Its brightest stars, Sadalmelik, 34-Alpha (α) Aquarii, and Sadalsuud, 22-Beta (β) Aquarii, are only third magnitude. The most prominent star pattern in Aquarius is the Y-shaped asterism (a group of stars that forms ...
Get Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
