Aquarius 11

α, 3.2, pale yellow.

Sadalmelik is from the Arabic Al Saʽd al Malik, the Lucky One of the King, sometimes given as Al Saʽd al Mulk, the Lucky One of the Kingdom, under which last title Kazwini and Ulug Beg combined it with ο. It similarly was Sidus Faustum Regis with the astrologers. Burritt called it El Melik and Phard, but this last seems unintelligible.
The Rucbah of the Century Cyclopedia is erroneous for this star — indeed was intended for α Sagittarii.
Sadalmelik lies on the right shoulder of the figure, 1° south of the celestial equator, and has a distant 11th‑magnitude gray companion.
With ε and θ Pegasi it made up the 23d sieu Goei, or Wei, Steep, or Danger, anciently Gui; but Brown says that the word signifies Foundation. α was the determinant star of this lunar station.
Gould called it red, and of 2.7 magnitude. It culminates on the 9th of October. From between α and η radiate the Eta Aquarids, the meteors visible from April 29th to May 2d.

β, 3.1, pale yellow.

Sadalsuud — not Sund nor Saud, as frequently written — is from Al Saʽd al Suʽud, liberally translated the Luckiest of the Lucky, from its rising with the sun when the winter had passed and the season of gentle, continuous rain had begun. This title also belongs to the 22d manzil, which included the star with ξ of Aquarius and c of Capricornus.
β and ξ also constituted the Persian lunar station Bunda and the similar Coptic Upuineuti, the Foundation; but β alone marked the sieu Heu, Hiu, or Hü, Void, anciently Ko, the central one of the seven sieu which, taken together, were known as Heung Wu, the Black Warrior, in the northern quarter of the sky. It is found in Hindu lists as Kalpeny, of unknown signification. On the Euphrates it was Kakkab Nammaχ, the Star of Mighty Destiny, that may have given origin to the title of the manzil, as well as to the astrologers' name for it — Fortuna Fortunarum.
Al Firuzabadi of Khorasan, editor of Al Ḳāmūs, the great Arabic dictionary of the 14th century, called some of the smaller stars below this Al Auʼā, the plural of Nauʽ, a Star, but without explanation, and they certainly are inconspicuous.

γ, 4.1, greenish,

on the right arm at the inner edge of the Urn, and the westernmost star in the Y, is Sadachbia, from Al Saʽd al Aḣbiyah, which has been interpreted the Lucky Star of Hidden Things or Hiding-places, because when it emerged from the sun's rays all hidden worms and reptiles, buried during the preceding cold, creep out of their holes! But as this word Aḣbiyah is merely the plural of Ḣibāʽ, a Tent, a more reasonable explanation is that the star was so called from its rising in the spring twilight, when, after the winter's want and suffering, the nomad's tents were raised on the freshening pastures, and the pleasant weather set in. This idea renders Professor Whitney's "Felicity of Tents" a happy translation of the original. ζ, η, and π are included with γ under this designation by Ulug Beg — ζ, in the centre, marking the top of the tent; Kazwini, however, considered this central star as Al Saʽd, and the three surrounding ones his tents.
All these stars, with α, formed the 23d manzil, bearing the foregoing title.
γ, ζ, η, π, and τ were the Chinese Fun Mo, the Tomb.
It was near γ that the Capuchin friar of Cologne, Schyraelus de Rheita,3 in 1643, thought that he had found five new satellites attendant upon Jupiter, which he named Stellae Urbani Octavi in compliment to the reigning pontiff; and a treatise, De novem Stellae circa Jovem, was written by Lobkowitz upon this wonderful discovery. "The planet, however, soon deserted his companions, and the stars proved to be the little group in front of the Urn."

δ, 3.4,

the Scheat of Tycho, and Scheat Edeleu of Riccioli, is Skat in modern lists, and variously derived: either from Al Shiʼat, a Wish, said to be found for it on Arabic globes; or from Al Ṣāk, the Shin-bone, near which it is located in the figure. But Hyde, probably following Grotius, said that it was from Al Saʽd of the preceding stars.
On the Euphrates it seems to have been associated with Hasisadra or Xasisadra, the 10th antediluvian king and hero of the Deluge; while, with β, κ, and others adjacent, it was the lunar station Apin, the Channel, and individually the Star of the Foundation. The corresponding stations, Khatsar in Persia, Shawshat in Sogdiana, and Mashtawand in Khorasmia, were also determined by this star.
The Chinese knew it, with τ, χ, the three stars ψ, and some in Pisces, as Yu Lin Keun, the Imperial Guard.
From near δ issues a meteor stream, the Delta Aquarids, from the 27th to the 29th of July, and not far away Mayer noted as a fixed star, on the 25th of September, 1756, the object that nearly twenty-five years later Sir William Herschel observed as a comet, but afterwards ascertained to be a new planet, our Uranus.

ε, 3.4,

was Al Bali, the brightest one of the 21st manzil, Al Saʽd al Bulaʽ, the Good Fortune of the Swallower, which included μ and ν; these last also known as Al Buläānº in the dual. Kazwini said that this strange title came from the fact that the two outside stars were more open than α and β of Capricorn, so that they seemed to swallow, or absorb, the light of the other! The corresponding sieu, Mo, Mu, Niu, Nü, or Woo Neu, a Woman, anciently written Nok, was composed of these stars with the addition of another, unidentified, ε being the determinant; and the same three were the Euphratean lunar asterism Munaχa, the Goat-fish, and the Coptic Upeuritos, the Discoverer.
Bayer mentioned for it Mantellum and Mantile, marking the Napkin or Towel held in the youth's hand; but in some early drawings this was shown as a Bunch of Grain Stalks.
Grotius had Ancha and Pyxis, but neither appropriate; while in our day the former is applied only to θ, and the latter is never seen as a stellar title except in La Caille's Pyxis Nautica in Argo.
Eastward from ε, near ν, is the Saturn Nebula, NGC 7009, that the largest telescopes show somewhat like the planet.

ζ, Binary, 4 and 4.1, very white and white.

Although unnamed, this is an interesting star at the centre of the Y of the Urn, and almost exactly on the celestial equator.
Mayer discovered its duplicity in 1777, and its binary character, first noted by Herschel in 1804, was confirmed by his son in 1821; but the period is not yet determined, although it is very long.
The components are 3ʺ.3 apart, and the position angle 322°.

θ, 4.3,

is Ancha, the Hip, although on most modern atlases the star lies in the belt on the front of the figure. The word is from the Latin of the Middle Ages, and still appears in the French hanche, our haunch.
reeves says that in China it was Lei, a Tear.

κ, 5.5.

Situla is applied to this, from the classical Latin term for a Water-jar or -bucket, the later Arabian word being the somewhat similar Saṭl, and the earlier Al Dalw.
Gassendi, however, derived it from sitis, thirst, the Waterman's Urn having been figured by some as an Oven!
Theon the Younger, father of the celebrated Hypatia of our 5th century, termed this star Ὀινοχοεία, the Outpouring of Wine, as if by Ganymede; and others, Κάλπη, and Urna, the southern edge of which, near the outflow, it marks.
Keats, in Endymion, very fancifully wrote of this Urn:
Crystalline brother of the belt of heaven,
Aquarius! to whom King Jove has given
Two liquid pulse streams 'stead of feather'd wings,
Two fan-like fountains, — thine illuminings
For Dian play.
In China κ was Heu Leang, the Empty Bridge.

λ, 3.8, red,

is the most prominent of the first stars in the Stream.
Proclus followed Aratos in calling it Ὕδωρ, the Water; and others, Ἔκχυσις, the Outpouring; Aratos describing it,
Like a slight flow of water here and there
Scattered around, bright stars revolve but small;
although these titles, appropriated by Bayer for λ, originally were for the whole group set apart as the Stream.
λ, with about 100 stars surrounding it, was the 23d nakshatra Catabhisaj, the Hundred Physician,º whose regent was Varuna, the goddess of the waters and chief of the Adityas, the various early divinities of Hindu mythology, and all children of Aditi, the Sky and the Heavens.
With ι, σ, and φ, it was the Chinese asterism Luy Peih Chin, the Camp with Intrenched Walls; but this included stars in Capricornus and Pisces.
ο, 4.7, a little to the southwest of α, was associated with it under the title Al Saʽd al Mulk. In China it was Kae Uh, the Roof.
π, 4.8, was called Seat by Grotius, as one of the group Al Saʽd al Aḣbiyah.
Sundry other four or five small stars in Aquarius were given by Reeves as Foo Yue, the Headsman's Ax.