Constellation Chart

Aquarius is the tenth largest constellation in skies, be found at southwest of the Great Square of Pegasus.

The constellation is formed by faint stars with mostly third or fourth magnitude, and is one of the most difficult constellations to make its figure. But a tiny asterism formed by four stars with fourth magnitude looks like a shape of reversed "Y" is only good mark to identify the constellation. It makes a jar held by Ganymede.

Planetary Nebula's In Aquarius

NGC7293

At the moderate latitude in the autumn's south sky, you can see the largest planetary nebula of NGC7293 in the skies only with binoculars. Its shape has given the name of "The Helix Nebula", it's resemble the DNA double helix on photographs. The nebula is located about 10 degrees NW of Fomalhaut, alpha PsA, it's easy to use the star as a mark to search the nebula rather than stars in Aquarius. The nebula has an extraordinary vast size, about same diameter with the half of that of full moon, and is unexpectedly faint, it's fairly difficult to see with nornal vision. The nebula has formed by a central white dwarf discharged the gaseous matter, and is expanding outward at the rate of about 25 km (16 miles) per second. It's said that the sun should be destined to follow the same way with a dwarf in this nebula about 5 billion years later.

Star Cluster's In Aquarius

M2 (NGC7089)

M2 (NGC7089) is a compact globular cluster under the head of Pegasus, belonged to the field of Aquarius. The cluster has an apparent diameter of 13 arc minutes and 6th magnitude, fairly noticeable because there aren't so many bright stars around this field. You'll be easily able to find M2 to follow a line to west about 8 degrees from alpha Aqr. The globular cluster is fairly dense, so you'll be needed medium-sized telescopes to resolve the individual stars around the edge. The cluster will show you like a dimmed nebula unless you have very clear and good seeing night. There is an another globular cluster of M15 about 13 degrees north looks just like M2. It's interesting to compare these two globular's in the autumn skies. The distance to M2 is estimated about 52 thousand light years.

M72

M72 is a globular cluster with an apparent diameter of 6 arc minutes and about 9th magnitude. It hardly can be distinguished with normal stars through finder scopes so you may miss it without very cared searching. The cluster is positioned at 3.5 degrees SSE of epsilon Aqr.

M73

M73 is lying at 1.3 degrees east of M72. This Messier's object is registered as an open cluster, but the cluster has only four 11th magnitude fine stars. It's very delicate whether M73 can be regarded as an astronomical open cluster. You can appreciate the asterism like a very compact cluster through telescopes with a low magnifying power. It may be no wonder that Messier recognized the cluster as an open cluster.

Planetary Destinations In Aquarius

HD 210277

Parent Star: HD 210277 (G0) in the constellation of Aquarius is located at a distance of 71.8 Light Years from our Solar system. Co-ordinates of Right Ascension: 22 09 29.49 & Declination: -07 32 32.7. The apparent Magnitude of the star is 6.63. The Inner Edge of Habitability Zone is 0.49 AU & the Outer Edge of Habitability Zone: 1.54 AU and the estimated stellar lifespan of the star is 10306 million years. Orbiting around HD 210277 is planet HD 210277 b the planet is believed to be a Water Cloud Jovian, Eccentric planet and its existence has been confirmed. The planets appearance is white water ice clouds . The planet is positioned is at Earthlike Temperatures within the habitability zone at Mean Orbital Distance of 1.097 AU and the estimated radius of the planet is 1.004 Jupiter's 1. The planet Orbits around the star every 435.6 1 1.9 Days and was discovered by Marcy etal in 1998.

Object Type: Kuiper Belt

Orbiting around parent star: HD 210277 is a Kuiper Belt (asteroid belt) at a mean orbital distance of 40 AU. It was Discovered in the year 1999. By: D. E. Trilling, R. H. Brown, A. S. Rivkin

HD 222582

Parent Star: HD 222582 (G5 V) in the constellation of Aquarius is located at a distance of 136.98 Light Years from our Solar system. Co-ordinates of Right Ascension: 23 41 51.5299 & Declination: -05 59 08.726. The apparent Magnitude of the star is 7.7. The Inner Edge of Habitability Zone is 0.58 AU & the Outer Edge of Habitability Zone: 1.82 AU and the estimated stellar lifespan of the star is 10000 million years. Orbiting around HD 93083 is planet HD 222582 b the planet is believed to be a Water Cloud Jovian, Eccentric and its existence has been confirmed. The planets appearance is White water ice clouds. The planet is positioned is at Earthlike Temperatures within the habitability zone at mean orbital distance of 1.35 AU and the estimated radius of the planet is 1.036 Jupiter's 1. The planet Orbits around the star every 572 Days and was discovered by Marcy et al in 1999.

91 Aquarii

Parent Star: 91 Aquarii (HD 219449) (K0 III) in the constellation of Aquarius is located at a distance of 146.77 Light Years from our Solar system. Co-ordinates of Right Ascension: 23 15 53.4947 & Declination: -09 05 15.853. The apparent Magnitude of the star is 4.21. The Inner Edge of Habitability Zone is 3.53 AU & the Outer Edge of Habitability Zone: 11.02 AU. Orbiting around 91 Aquarii (HD 219449) is planet 91 Aquarii b the planet is believed to be a Dark Hot Jupiter and its existence has been confirmed. The planets appearance is a dark sodium haze . The planet is positioned just out side the inner edge of the Habitability Zone at Mean Orbital Distance of 0.3 AU and the estimated mass of the planet is Mass 2.9 Jupiter's. The planet Orbits around the star every 182 Days and was discovered by MITCHELL D., FRINK S., QUIRRENBACH A., FISCHER D., MARCY G. & BUTLER P. in 2003.

Solar System In Aquarius

In the writings by Alice A. Bailey she mention's that there are seven solar systems each with ten planets in each one of the seven major constellations, the seven being Aquarius, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Scorpio, Libra, Virgo, and leo. Aquarius is the original point of the seventh cosmic ray. it is my belief the Gliese 876 is one of those seven solar system mentioned by Alice A. Bailey in her writings and it is here were the seventh ray is emitted. The name given for this ray is elemental lives. The basket of nourishment. The blinded lives.

Gliese 876

Parent Star: Gliese 876 (M4 V) in the constellation of Aquarius is located at a distance of 15.4 Light Years from our Solar system Co-ordinates of Right Ascension: 22 53 13.4 & Declination: -14 15 13. The apparent Magnitude of the star is 10.17. The Inner Edge of Habitability Zone is 0.06 AU & the Outer Edge of Habitability Zone: 0.2 AU and the estimated stellar lifespan of the star is 305175 million years. Orbiting around Gliese 876 are planet Gliese 876 b, Gliese 876 c, Gliese 876 d.

Gliese 876 b the planet is believed to be locked in a 1:2 harmonic orbit with it's sibling Gliese 876 c and is a water cloud Jovian planet and its existence has been confirmed. The planets appearance is White water ice clouds. The planet is positioned at the outer edge of Habitability Zone at Mean Orbital Distance of 0.207 1 0.00003 AU and the estimated radius of the planet is 1.026 Jupiter's 1. The planet Orbits around the star every 60.94 1 0.013 Days and was discovered by Marcy and Butler, Confirmed by Delfosse and Mayor in 1998.

Gliese 876 c the planet is believed to be a Sulfurous Cloud Jovian planet and its existence has been confirmed. The planets appearance is White water ice clouds. The planet is at Earthlike Temperatures at Mean Orbital Distance of 0.13 AU and the estimated radius of the planet is 0.952 Jupiter's 1. The planet Orbits around the star every 30.12 Days and was discovered by Marcy et al in 2001.

Gliese 876 d the planet is believed to be a Clarified Neptunium planet and its existence has been confirmed. The planets appearance is blue and cloudless . The planet is positioned out side of Habitability Zone at Mean Orbital Distance of 0.02 1 0.0000005 AU and the estimated radius of the planet is 7.314 1 0.954 Earths . The planet Orbits around the star every 1.93776 1 0.00007 Days and was discovered by Rivera et al in 2005.

Superearth Gliese 876 d is only 7.5 Earth masses, making it as of mid 2005 the smallest extrasolar planet known around a normal star. At such a low mass, it must be composed primarily of rock, although its rocky surface may lie beneath a thick layer of super condensed volatiles and a dense atmosphere. If, on the other hand, most of the planet's volatiles have been lost to early bombardment or were never present in large quantities, the rocky surface of Gliese 876 d may be visible from space. Baked both internally by the heat of radioactive decay and externally by its close proximity to its star, such a massive terrestrial world have a thin crust riddled with tectonic rifts and possibly even oceans of magma exposed on the surface.

HD 217580

Parent Star: HD 217580(K4 V) in the constellation of Aquarius is located at a distance of 58.7 Light Years from our Solar system. Co-ordinates of Right Ascension: 23 01 51.54 & Declination: -03 50 55.4. The apparent Magnitude of the star is 7.46. The Inner Edge of Habitability Zone is 0.3 AU & the Outer Edge of Habitability Zone is 0.94 AU. Orbiting around HD 217580 is planet HD 217580 b the planet is believed to be a Brown Dwarf and its existence has been confirmed. The planets appearance is a brown haze. The planet is positioned just out side of the Habitability Zone at Mean Orbital Distance of 1 AU and the estimated mass of the planet is Mass 60 Jupiters. The planet Orbits around the star every 454.66 Days and was discovered by Tokovinin et al. in 1994.