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Description
Aquarius as a constellation, is not that easily found.
It consists mostly of dim stars.
Yet, it is one of the oldest of the recognised zodiac signs.

Now, I could spend pages telling of how the babylonians called it GU.LA, “the great one”, how it represented the god Ea, commonly depicted as holding an overflowing vase.
I could tell of how the constellation has also been associated with Ganymede the cup bearer of the greek gods, amongst other things.

What I find interesting however is that this is a constellation that is relatively dim.
Yet it has been separated out as one of the 12 most important constellations on the sky.
Clearly, at some point it must have been easier to see.
Which says a great deal about the light pollution of today.

Truth be told, if you live in a city, most likely you haven’t taken a proper look at the stars.
Not most of them anyway.
Not in person.
Because you simply can’t see them.

For most of history such interference did not exist.
It is a relatively new problem.

It is a weird thought.
We take it for granted, that in order to see the veil of the Milky Way, one has to traverse far away from “civilisation”.
Far away from people.
Nearly make an expedition out of it.

But for most of history, it will have been visible in most places.

This is the price of progress.
We gained proper street lighting.
But we lost the Milky Way.

And Aquarius with it.

Description
Aquarius as a constellation, is not that easily found.
It consists mostly of dim stars.
Yet, it is one of the oldest of the recognised zodiac signs.

Now, I could spend pages telling of how the babylonians called it GU.LA, “the great one”, how it represented the god Ea, commonly depicted as holding an overflowing vase.
I could tell of how the constellation has also been associated with Ganymede the cup bearer of the greek gods, amongst other things.

What I find interesting however is that this is a constellation that is relatively dim.
Yet it has been separated out as one of the 12 most important constellations on the sky.
Clearly, at some point it must have been easier to see.
Which says a great deal about the light pollution of today.

Truth be told, if you live in a city, most likely you haven’t taken a proper look at the stars.
Not most of them anyway.
Not in person.
Because you simply can’t see them.

For most of history such interference did not exist.
It is a relatively new problem.

It is a weird thought.
We take it for granted, that in order to see the veil of the Milky Way, one has to traverse far away from “civilisation”.
Far away from people.
Nearly make an expedition out of it.

But for most of history, it will have been visible in most places.

This is the price of progress.
We gained proper street lighting.
But we lost the Milky Way.

And Aquarius with it.