Scorpius is southern hemisphere constellation. It is one of the brightest constellations of the zodiac. The 1st magnitude red giant star Antares is part of the constellation. Due to this, one can easily spot Scorpius in the night sky. The shape is slanted S shaped.
The Scorpius genitive is ‘scorpii’ and aberration is ‘sco’. It has a right ascension 16.8875 hours and declination -30.7367 Degrees. It is 33rd in the size ranking and covers 497 square degree area in the sky. The Scorpius covers 1.205 % area of the night sky. Scorpius lies near the galactic center in the milky way. Therefore, we can see a lot of faint fuzzies in the constellation Scorpius.
Myths
According to Greek myth, Orion is the son of Poseidon- the god of sea. It was hunting with goddess of wild animal Artemis and boasted he could kill any creature on the earth. This angered the earth goddess Gaia. So, she sent a giant scorpion to kill Orion. When Orion try to escape, the scorpion killed Orion with his poisonous tail. The death of the Orion delights the Gaia. So, as a reward Gaia placed Scorpion image in the night sky. Whenever we look at Scorpius, it feels like scorpion is always chasing after Orion in the night sky.
In a Greek myth without Orion, the celestial scorpion encountered Phaethon while he was driving his father Helios’ Sun Chariot.
How to detect
Scorpius is the summer constellation. We can spot Scorpius by its unique shape. The shape of the scorpion’s tail complete with stinger, makes one of the most distinct shape in the night sky. The other way to detect Scorpius is by detecting the bright red star Antares. The Antares makes finding the constellation Scorpius very easy.
Scorpius as signpost
Stargazers can detect several constellations around the Scorpius by using constellation Scorpius as signpost. In front of Graffias, we can find constellation Libra. Below the Libra and below the Antares, there lies constellation Lupus. Just below the epsilon scopii and mu scorpii, constellation Norma is present. Constellation Ara is present below the Eta scorpii. In the tail region, in front of kappa scorpii, constellation Corona Australis is visible. Constellation Sagittarius is situated in front of Shaula. Above the Antares, we can find constellation Serpens Cauda and constellation Ophiuchus.
Major stars
The constellation Scorpius contain 18 main stars and 47 Bayer stars.
Antares
It Is known as Alpha scorpii.. Antares is the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius. Also, it is 15th brightest star in the night sky. Antares is 604 light years away having apparent magnitude of 1.06. Antares is approximately 10,000 times luminous than sun. The Antares age is about 12 million years.
Acrab
It is also known as Beta scorpii. Arcab is multiple star system with two visible components. It is 530 light years away having apparent magnitude of 2.56.
Dschubba
It is also known as Delta Scorpii. Dschubba name comes from Arabic ‘jabhat’ means Forehead. Dschubba is 401 light years away and it has apparent magnitude of 2.29.
Larawag
It is variable star. Its brightness varies by 0.01 to 0.02 magnitude. It is also known as Epsilon scorpii. Larawag is 65 light years away with magnitude of 2.29 .
Sargas
It is yellow giant star, termed as theta scorpii. This star is 1834 times luminous than the Sun. Sargas is 272 light years away with magnitude of 1.86 .
Lota scorpii
It is 12 times massive than the sun and about 35070 times more luminous than Sun. Lota scorpii is 1791 light years away with apparent magnitude of 2.99 .
Girtab
It is also termed as kappa scorpii. It is binary Star. The star is 17 times massive than the Sun. Girtab is 464 light years away with apparent magnitude of 2.39.
Shaula
Shaula represent tail of the Scorpius. It is also known as Lambda scorpii. It is the 2nd brightest star in the constellation Scorpius and 25th brightest star in the night sky. Shaula is multiple star system with three components. It is 703 light years away with apparent magnitude of 1.62.
Xamidimura and pipirima
It is also termed as Mu scorpii. The star has a radius seven times more than Sun. It is 821 light years away with apparent magnitude of 3.00.
Fang
Fang is a triple star system. It is also known as pie scorpii. Fang is 459 light years away with apparent magnitude of 2.89.
Paikauhale
It is a dwarf star, also known as tau scorpii. Paikauhale is very hot and luminous Star. It has about 15 times more mass than the Sun. It is 430 light years away with apparent magnitude of 2.82.
Lesath
Lesath is termed as upsilon scorpii. it is 518 light years away with apparent magnitude of 2.70. The star is about 11 times more massive and 12,300 times more luminous than the Sun.
Deep sky objects
• M4
M4 is a globular cluster. It is lies in same field of view as Antares, which makes it very easy to find. M4 is about 75 light years across. It is approximately 7200 light years away with apparent magnitude of 5.9 . The age of M4 cluster is around 12.2 billion years.
• M80
M80 is also a globular cluster. It is lying in between Antares and Graffias. M80 is one of the densely populated clusters in our galaxy. It is approximately 32,600 light years away with apparent magnitude of 7.87. when we see through a telescope, we will see M80 as a fuzzy ball.
• M7
M7 is also known as the Ptolemy cluster. It is open cluster situated near Scorpius stringer. It contains approximately 80 stars. M7 is about 980 light years away with apparent magnitude of 3.3. The age of this open cluster is about 200 Million years.
• M6
M6 is famous as Butterfly cluster. The shape forming by the stars is look similar to the butterfly. It is open cluster. The age of the cluster is about 94.2 million years. It is approximately 1600 light years away with apparent magnitude of 4.2.
• NGC 6334
It is also known as cat’s paw nebula. It is emission nebula in Scorpius. It is star forming region. The nebula contains some of the massive stars contain in milky way. It is active stellar nurseries.
• NGC 6302
NGC 6302 is a bipolar planetary nebula in the Scorpius. It is also known as butterfly nebula or bug nebula. The central star, a white dwarf, has a surface temperature in excess of 200,000 K, which makes it one of the hottest stars in the galaxy. It has radius of 1.5 light years. Butterfly nebula is situated 3392 light years away with apparent magnitude of 7.1.
• NGC 6231
It is open cluster in Scorpius. It is also known as Northern jewel box cluster. It has apparent magnitude of 2.6. it is located half degree north of Zeta scorpii. It is situated approximately 5600 light years away from the earth.
• NGC 6357
The Lobster nebula, also known as war and peace nebula. It is diffuse nebula in the Scorpius, located approximately 5500 light years away. It contains many proto stars covered by dark disc of gas.