When I see the constellation Scorpius the Scorpion right after evening twilight I know that summer’s really kicked in. Scorpio is rarity. It’s one of those few constellations that actually almost looks likes what it’s suppose to be. It also has a nickname around here; “the giant fish fishhook”, that trolls our low summer skies every month. I remember my grandma pointing the big fishhook off the dock of her cabin near Garrison.

Finding Scorpius does not require astronomical effect. Look in the low southern skies and make sure you have a fairly low tree line. First look for the bright brick red star Antares, the heart of the Scorpion. It’s the brightest star in that part of the heavens and the 15th brightest star in the night sky. To the right of Antares you’ll see three dimmer stars in a vertical row that makes up the Scorpion’s head. To the lower left of Antares, look for the long curved tail of the beast. The scorpion’s tail is a little easier to see in southern United States since it’s higher in the sky, but you can see the tail from this area if you have a low tree line and a flat southern horizon.

Antares has a definite reddish hue, demonstrating the fact that stars come in different colors. There not just little white lights in the sky. A star’s color hue tells a lot about its nature. Bluish white stars are the hottest; with surface temperatures of over 70,000 degrees F. Reddish stars like Antares are cooler. In Fact Antares is cooler than our own sun with a surface temperature of around 5000 degrees F. (not in the shade). A thermometer plopped on the sun surface would show close to 11,000 F. Antares reddish hue is also reflected in its name. Antares is derived from Greek language and means “rival of Mars” since it has that same ruddy tone as the planet Mars. In fact you can easily confuse Mars and Antares with each other if you’re new to stargazing.

There’s no confusion between Mars and Antares when it comes to size. Mars is only about 4000 miles across, a far celestial cry from the over 600 million mile diameter of Antares! That’s over 700 times the diameter of our sun. If we fired the sun as the center of our solar system and hired Antares, the outer edge our new sun would extend beyond the orbit of Mars. We would be living inside Antares and global warming would really run amuck!

There are many stories in lore and mythology as to how Scorpius wound up as a constellation. The one I like is the Greek mythology story about how Zeus sent a giant Scorpion to kill the mighty hunter Orion to end an affair he was having with his daughter Diana, the goddess of the moon. Orion hunted by night and slept by day and while he was on his nocturnal hunting adventures, he was noticed and admired by Diana as she dutifully led the moon across the sky. She would call down to the studley hunter and they would have long distance conversations. As time went on Diana eventually join Orion in his hunting jaunts, ignoring her lunar duties.

Zeus learned of his daughter negligence and put a contract out on Orion. He had his staff send a giant scorpion to sting and kill Orion during his daytime slumber. When the fateful day arrived and the giant scorpion approached Orion, the ever-alert hunter woke up as the beast stirred up the nearby brush in its approach. Orion shot up and valiantly fought the scorpion with all his might but eventually he was stung by the steroid enhanced scorpion and died instantly

That night Diana discovered the body of her boyfriend and was filled with tremendous grief. She managed to compose herself and lift Orion’s body to the sky and transform it into the famous constellation we see during the winter evening. As she looked back down to Earth she saw the giant scorpion not all that far from where she found Orion. She put two and two together and decided to get revenge. She dive bombed the scorpion, picked it up and flung it up into the opposite direction of the sky from where her dead boyfriend was. That’s why Orion and Scorpion are never seen in the sky at the same time. Orion prowls the winter skies and Scorpio trolls the summer heavens. Orion won’t get stung again!

Constellation of the Month Diagram Click here