Scorpius is one of the oldest constellations known; possibly one of the original six signs of the Zodiac. Scorpius is one of the brighter constellations of the Zodiac.
Scorpius can be seen near the southern horizon by observers in the Chicago Metropolitan Area. It’s just above the horizon, so you’ll need a clear view of the southern horizon in order to see the entire constellation.
It’s quite bright and looks like an elegantly drawn, cursive “S”. The “S” is divided up into three groups of stars – each containing three stars in a short line.
In the center is a red Super-giant star called Antares. Antares has blown up to 300 times our Sun’s diameter because it has reached the end of its life and no longer has any hydrogen to turn into helium through a nuclear fusion reaction. It’s through a similar reaction that our Sun creates heat and light. In about 6 billion years or so, our Sun will also run out of fuel and become a red giant, but Antares was initially a larger star than the Sun so its demise will be quite different. The Sun will eventually blow up to about 100 times its current diameter and then slowly contract into a cold white dwarf. Antares will eventually become a super nova. For a very brief time it will emit as much light and energy as all the stars of the galaxy. Most of the heavier elements that make up the Earth and our very bodies were created in a super nova explosion. Then Antares will also contract. But instead of ending up as mere white dwarf, its huge mass will produce a gravitational pull so intense that not even light can escape from it and all the mass of Antares will be contracted into a single geometric point called a “black hole”.
Scorpius the Scorpion was sent to kill Orion the Hunter by Gaia, a Greek Earth Goddess who vowed to rid the earth of all wild beasts. Scorpius would chase Orion across the sky but it could never catch him because of its location in the sky. It rises in the east after Orion has safely set in the west.
M4 is a 6th magnitude globular cluster near Antares, which can be seen in binoculars. M80 is an 8th magnitude globular cluster, and M19 & M62 are 7th magnitude globulars. M6 & M7 are beautiful open clusters that are located between the end of the tail of Scorpius and the “Teapot” in Sagittarius. M6 is the Butterfly Cluster, and M7 has no name but is an extremely large cluster, twice the diameter of the full Moon. It is quite bright, and sometimes can been seen with the naked eye under the right conditions. NGC 6302, the “Bug Nebula”, is a magnitude 12.8 planetary nebula near the tip of Scorpius’ tail.
And one of my personal favorites, the Jewel Box of Scorpius, two clusters, one on top of the other, located just above Zeta Scorpii, the point where the tail makes a sharp 90 degree turn towards the east.
There are six double-stars and one variable star in Scorpius.
Go out and spend some time observing the constellation Scorpius while you still can. You won’t regret it!
Copyright © 2002 by Jeff Benuzzi