Legend

To the Babylonians, Aquarius was the ruler of all the watery constellations — Pisces, Capricornus, Piscis Austrinus and Cetus. To the Egyptians, Aquarius caused the yearly flooding of the river Nile. The Greeks personified Aquarius, drawing him as a young man pouring water from a pitcher. They were probably thinking of Ganymede, a beautiful young man who was carried off by an eagle to become the cupbearer to the gods.

If you have very good eyes and a very dark sky, you might just make out a faint, fuzzy blob above Sadalmelik and Sadalsuud — "the two brightest stars in Aquarius. This 'fuzzy blob' is M2, one of the brightest globular clusters in the sky. Even a small pair of binoculars will make it quite easy to find, if you know where to look.

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