It is found in a region often called the Sea due to its profusion of constellations with watery associations such as Cetus the whale, Pisces the fish, and Eridanus the river.

Aquarius is identified as GU.LA "The Great One" in the Babylonian star catalogues and represents the god Ea himself, who is commonly depicted holding an overflowing vase.

Aquarius was also associated with the destructive floods that the Babylonians regularly experienced, and thus was negatively connoted.

[5] In the Greek tradition, the constellation came to be represented simply as a single vase from which a stream poured down to Piscis Austrinus.

[2] In Greek mythology, Aquarius is sometimes associated with Deucalion, the son of Prometheus who built a ship with his wife Pyrrha to survive an imminent flood.

[3][6] Aquarius is also sometimes identified with beautiful Ganymede, a youth in Greek mythology and the son of Trojan king Tros, who was taken to Mount Olympus by Zeus to act as cup-carrier to the gods.

The name "Yu-lin" means "feathers and forests", referring to the numerous light-footed soldiers from the northern reaches of the empire represented by these faint stars.

The celestial army was protected by the wall Leibizhen (垒壁阵), which counted Iota, Lambda, Phi, and Sigma Aquarii among its 12 stars.

Near the border with Cetus, the axe Fuyue was represented by three stars; its position is disputed and may have instead been located in Sculptor.

Tienliecheng also has a disputed position; the 13-star castle replete with ramparts may have possessed Nu and Xi Aquarii but may instead have been located south in Piscis Austrinus.

Nearby, the emperors' mausoleum Xiuliang stood, demarcated by Kappa Aquarii and three other collinear stars.

The 11th lunar mansion shared its name with the constellation Xu ("emptiness"), formed by Beta Aquarii and Alpha Equulei; it represented a bleak place associated with death and funerals.

Recent research has shown that there are several stars lying within its borders that possess planetary systems.

[11] γ Aquarii, also called Sadachbia,[16] is a white main sequence star of spectral type star of spectral type A0V that is between 158 and 315 million years old and is around 2.5 times the Sun's mass (2.5 M☉),[17] and double its radius.

[6] δ Aquarii, also known as Skat[16][8] or Scheat[7] is a blue-white spectral type A2 star with apparent magnitude 3.27 and luminosity 105 L☉.

[16] λ Aquarii, also called Hudoor or Ekchusis,[5] is spectral type M2 with magnitude 3.74 and luminosity 120 L☉.

HD 210277 b was discovered earlier than most of the other planets in Aquarius, detected by the radial velocity method in 1998.

Both discovered in 2011 by the radial velocity method, the two tiny planets orbit very close to their host star.

The error in the mass measurements (0.0032 and 0.0049 MJ respectively) is large enough to make this discrepancy statistically insignificant.

[28][29] On 23 February 2017, NASA announced that ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 in Aquarius has seven Earth-like rocky planets.

Because of its position away from the galactic plane, the majority of deep-sky objects in Aquarius are galaxies, globular clusters, and planetary nebulae.

While M73 was originally catalogued as a sparsely populated open cluster, modern analysis indicates the 6 main stars are not close enough together to fit this definition, reclassifying M73 as an asterism.

M2, also catalogued as NGC 7089, is a rich globular cluster located approximately 37,000 light-years from Earth.

At magnitude 6.5, it is viewable in small-aperture instruments, but a 100 mm aperture telescope is needed to resolve any stars.

M72, also catalogued as NGC 6981, is a small 9th magnitude globular cluster located approximately 56,000 light-years from Earth.

[34] One of the visible galaxies in Aquarius is NGC 7727, of particular interest for amateur astronomers who wish to discover or observe supernovae.

[8] Originally discovered by Chinese astronomers in 401, Eta Aquariids can be seen coming from the Water Jar beginning on 21 April and as late as 12 May.

[37] The Delta Aquariids is a double radiant meteor shower that peaks first on 29 July and second on 6 August.