Scorpius, resembles the shape of a Scorpion, when stars in this constellation are imaginarily connected, as per Indian mythology!
Where should I see…
Libra, is the constellation which is towards west of Scorpius constellation. If you move your eyes
towards east, you will see another constellation named Sagittarius. In the North and South of Scorpius, you will find Ophiuchus and Ara constellations respectively. Scorpius is nearly halfway between celestial equator and South Pole, and so is fully part of Southern Hemisphere.
It covers up 497 square degree area of the sky. Area wise it is 33rd largest constellation in the sky.
When and What can I see…
It is on the zodiacal belt and hence is the 8th zodiac on the zodiac belt. Sun enters in this constellation
from 23rd November to 21st December . It is best observed during February to October, as seen from India.
All you need is your naked eyes other than clear skies to see 170 stars of this constellations, as they are the one which are brighter than the lower limit of our naked eyes (i.e. 6.5 apparent magnitude) to see faintest stars. The brightest stars of this constellation are Antares. The Hindu names of it Jyeshtha which is also called as Nakshatra (lunar mansion). There are other Nakshatras in this constellation named Mula and Anuradha.
Constellations are made up of single, binary (apparent and absolute), multiple and variable stars. Out of total 170 stars of different types, here is the list of 20 brightest stars as per their nature:
| Binary / Multiple Star system |
Variable Stars |
Binary/multiple and Variable Stars |
Single stars |
| Dschubba |
Sargas |
Antares |
Lesath |
| Fuyue |
Larawag |
Shaula |
Paikauhale |
| Pipirima |
3 |
Fang |
2 |
| Iklil |
|
Alniyat |
|
| Jabbah |
|
xamidimura |
|
| 1 |
|
|
|
| 6 |
5 |
5 |
4 |
Mythology stories…
There are no Hindu mythological stories associated with this constellation.
Deep Sky Objects…
Butterfly Nebula or NGC 6302 || Planetary Nebula
Cats Paw Nebula oe NGC 6334 || Emission Nebula
M4 or NGC 6121 || Globular Cluster
All the stars that we see naked eyes, all belong to our own, Milky way galaxy (Akash Ganga Tara Vishv). Bright stars can be seen naked eye and faint one through telescope. But the curtain of sky that we see in 2D is actually a huge universe we are talking about, with 3 dimension. There are many nebulous objects visible in every constellations. They differ widely by distances and nature. Like Emission Nebula, Reflecting Nebula, Absorption Nebula, Star Birth Nebula, Supernova Remnants (SNR) and Open Starscluster which are within the disk of our own Milky Way galaxy. Globular cluster are also found, which are in the halo of our galaxy and some most distant objects like galaxies are also visible through telescope. Such objects are defined as “Deep Sky Objects”.
In this constellation there are 64 such different types of Deep Sky Objects observed. Below is the list of 20 brightest Deep Sky Objects:
M6 or NGC 6405 || Open Cluster
M7 or Ptolemy Cluster || Open Cluster
M80 or NGC 6093 || Globular Cluster
| |
Galaxy |
Open Cluster |
Globular Cluster |
Nebula |
Supernova Remnant |
|
| Naked eye visibility |
– |
M7(ptolemy’s cluster) |
M4(The cat’s eye) |
2 |
– |
|
| – |
M6(Butterfly cluster)
|
– |
– |
– |
|
| – |
7 |
– |
– |
– |
|
| Visible through Telescope |
– |
5 |
M80 |
– |
– |
|
|
| – |
– |
2 |
– |
– |
|
|
|
| |
– |
14 |
4 |
2 |
– |
|
NGC 6072 || Planetary Nebula
NGC 6124 || Open cluster
NGC 6281 || Open Cluster
