Aquarius is an ancient constellation. The Babylonians recognized it as a man, pouring water from a jar. This is still the typical picture for Aquarius today. Together with a few neighboring constellations (in particular Fishes and Whale), Aquarius forms some sort of “wet” area in the night sky, possibly because the sun passed this area during rainy season 2500 years ago.
 
Aquarius is the source of three rich meteor showers. The biggest of them reaches its maximum around May 5, with up to 40 shooting stars per hour.
 
With M2 (NGC 7089) and M72 (NGC 6981), Aquarius contains two popular globular clusters.

This constellation belongs to the zodiac. Its time of the year is between January 21 and February 19. This constellation does not belong to the zodiac. It's brightest star is Sadalsuud (β Aquarii).

Neighboring constellations are Equuleus, Delphinus, Aquila, Capricornus, Pisces Austrinus, Sculptor, Cetus, Pisces, and Pegasus. Have a look at our full list of all constellations.

Return to selected star.

NGC 7293 (Helix nebula)

a planetary nebula in the constellation Water Carrier

Image credit: NASA, ESA, C.R. O'Dell (Vanderbilt University), and M. Meixner, P. McCullough, and G. Bacon ( Space Telescope Science Institute)