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Aquarius

OBSERVER: Ola Karlsson
COMPOSER: Ola Karlsson
DATE: 18 October 2013
POSITION: AZ: 170 00 00 ALT: 20 00 00
EXPOSURE TIME: 9x15s, combined
Aquarius is one of the zodiac constellations. In greek mythology there are more than one association, but the perhaps most common is with the Ganymede story in which also the Eagle is present. This constellation is mostly situated in the southern sky thus difficult to see at all in Sweden. The whole constellation is above the horizon for just about three hours. The best viewing conditions are early evenings in November. There are no bright non-stellar objects present except that Neptune happens to be present. Actually, it is not a surprise since the orbital period of Neptune is about 165 years i.e. it spends more than a decade in each constellation along the ecliptic. In order to locate Neptune, note the star (A, 33Aqr) at the end of the line which crosses the (green) boundary. Note another star (B, Ancha) up to the left to the lines forming an angle (the elbow). Between these two stars there are two slightly fainter stars. One of them is directly below star B (C, HR8500) and the other (D, 38Aqr) is almost on the line between A and B. Go to star C. At a right angle from the line between C and D there is another star (E, 57Aqr) which is slightly brighter than both C and D. The distance to E from C is slightly longer than between C and D, and a fainter star is close to E. Almost exactly on the line between E and D there is a faint dot slightly closer to D than E (forming roughly a right angle together with C and D). This dot is Neptune.
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