How to find Scorpius
One of the few constellations that actually looks like its namesake — a curving scorpion led by red Antares.
Antares — a red supergiant whose name means 'rival of Mars'.
Scorpius is a summer showpiece, a genuinely scorpion-shaped curve of bright stars low in the south (overhead from the southern hemisphere). Its heart is Antares, a red supergiant so large it would swallow the orbit of Mars.
It lies toward the centre of the Milky Way, so the whole region is crowded with star clusters and nebulae.
Antares and the stinger
Antares glows distinctly orange-red and pulses gently in brightness. From its head, a fishhook curve of stars sweeps down to the 'stinger' — the pair Shaula and Lesath at the tail.
From mid-northern latitudes the tail skims the southern horizon, so a low, clear southern view is essential. From the southern hemisphere the whole scorpion stands high and proud.
How to find it
- Look low in the south on summer evenings for a bright red-orange star — that's Antares
- Trace the curving line of stars down to the stinger near the horizon
- You need a clear southern horizon from northern latitudes; it's overhead from the south
Deep-sky highlights
- Butterfly Cluster (M6) and Ptolemy Cluster (M7) near the stinger
- Globular clusters M4 and M80 close to Antares
- Dense Milky Way star fields toward the galactic centre
Stella shows exactly when Scorpius is highest from your location tonight — and whether the sky is worth it.
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