Constellations

The Deep Photographic Guide to the
Constellations

The constellation of the month
OCTOBER

Aquarius

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Names:

Latin: Aquarius (Aqr)
English: Water Bearer Spanish: Acuario
German: Wassermann French: Verseau

The constellation of Aquarius is shown in the above photography. However, it extends somewhat more out of our standard field of view of 39 x 27 degrees (see lines).

In mid of October the above field culminates at about 21:00 LT ( pm). The declination of Aquarius ranges from -25 to +3 degrees. The brightest star in Aquarius is Sadalmelek (V = 3.2 mag) and can be seen in the upper central part. Aquarius is just south of the prominent autumn constellation of Pegasus. A distinct sign of Aquarius is the small Y shaped group of four stars directly left of Sadalmelek (see lines).
The ecliptic crosses Aquarius, i.e. it lies in the plane of our solar system. So you frequently can see the sun, moon, and planets there. Aquarius is a sign of the zodiac.

Aquarius is quite poor of deep sky objects. However, in the very south is the prominent Helix planetary nebula, the brightest of its kind! And with its large diameter of 15' it even can be resolved to a ring in the above wide angle image.

© all photographs taken by Till Credner and Sven Kohle