Featured Constellations |
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Scorpius and Sagittarius have two important
advantages for city-dwellers like me trying to
find constellations: bright stars, and
distinctive patterns.
Scorpius is marked first and foremost by the red giant star Antares - literally "anti-Ares", or the rival of Mars, because its ruddy glow closely approximates the appearance of that planet in the sky. Of course, Antares is not millions of miles away like Mars, nor is it a planet; Antares is some 500 light-years away, and is a huge star about 10,000 times brighter than our sun. Above Antares are three bluish stars that mark the claws of the scorpion - originally, the Greeks continued those claws northwest through what we now call Libra the Scales.
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But the Egyptians were set on retaining their scale in the sky, at a point where the sun appeared during the equinox - when day are night are the same length and thus "balanced". So most of Scorpius remains, but the claws are little stubs just north of Antares.
The body of the Scorpion curves south and then back up to the deadly stinger star, "Shaula". In mythology, Scorpius was a creature on an assassination mission. The mighty hunter Orion had made one boast too many: that he could kill ANY creature. The gods sent Scorpius to get him, and after the fateful battle the slain Orion was placed among the winter stars - and opposite him on the celestial sphere, victorious Scorpius too glitters...a reminder of the cycle of life and death, and a warning against going up against mother nature.
Sagittarius may look like a teapot, but he is in fact an archer - and a four-legged one to boot: a centaur, to be specific - half horse, half man. The front of the teapot is the bow he pulls back, the spout is the tip of his arrow he aims westward at Scorpius. The remainder of the teapot are stars marking the centaur's upper body and pulled-back arm; fainter stars southeastward sketch out his lower horsey half.
Below Sagittarius is the small faint star group of Corona Australis, the southern crown - above him and the scorpion is the large constellation of Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer, a medical doctor honored today in the medical symbol of snake and staff. Completing the area is Scutum the shield, a star pattern named several hundred years ago to honor a Polish hero.
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