The Scorpion of summer is chasing Mars
The Butler area is a great place to spend the summer for the most part, but for stargazing it's too bad that we don't live a little farther south.
If we did we could really enjoy the splendor of the great summer constellation Scorpius the Scorpion. It really looks like a scorpion, not that we have many around here to compare it with and that's a good thing.
They're nocturnal, and they are nasty. One bit my sister in Texas, and it was no fun. The celestial scorpion won't bite us, but from our latitude it looks like its tail and stinger are partially bit off.
This time of summer Scorpius is at its highest point in the southern sky as evening begins, but unfortunately that's not all that high. The Scorpion takes a low southern track as it crawls west through the night. Much of its stinger barely makes it above the horizon.
In fact, unless you have a really low, flat, treeless southern horizon you have no chance of seeing Scorpius's stinger. If you view the constellation from someplace like a farm field or a hilltop you'll have a much better view of the business end of the celestial scorpion.
You'll know you're seeing the stinger because it's made up of two moderately bright stars close together like cat's eyes.
The brightest star in Scorpius is Antares, positioned at the heart of the scorpion.
Appropriately, it has a dark red ruddy hue to it, but not because its pumping blood to the beast's extremities. Actually, it's what astronomers call a super red giant star, and that's what this behemoth star truly is.
Our sun is a pipsqueak compared to Antares. The sun's diameter is less than a million miles across, but Antares spans a diameter of nearly 700 million miles.
If you kicked the sun out of the center of our solar system and replaced it with Antares, the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars would be inside Antares
While it's one of the brighter stars in our night sky it could be a lot brighter if it wasn't so far away. Taking a trip to Antares would require a journey of more than 3,500 trillion miles.
Antares's reddish color is due to it being a relatively cooler star. Star colors are like the light in a fire. Red flames are relatively cooler than blue flames.
Our own sun is considered a yellowish-white star with the temperature of its outer later, called the photosphere, at a little more than 10,000 degrees. Antares is cooler at just under 6,000 degrees.
As bright and ruddy as Antares is there's a much brighter red “star” in Scorpius's backyard — Mars, which was at its closest approach to Earth last May when it was just under 47 million miles away.
It's still fairly close by at 63 million miles away as Earth and Mars gradually drift farther away from each other in their respective orbits around the sun.
As you can see in the diagram, it looks like the celestial scorpion is chasing Mars, and over the next several weeks it will overtake the red planet. Actually what's happening is that Mars is moving eastward among the background of stars because of its orbit.
In early August Scorpius appears to “eat” Mars. When that happens Mars and Antares will draw closer to each other. The name Antares is Greek in nature and translates to English as “rival of Mars.” You'll be able to see why.
Scorpius is also playing host this summer to my favorite planet to view through a telescope, magnificent Saturn.
I never get tired of viewing this planet with its ring system and tiny little moons. What I love even more is introducing Saturn to folks at my star parties and classes through the telescope. I never tire of hearing all the oohs and ahhs. What's really great about Saturn is that it looks great even through a small telescope.
Saturn appears to be riding on the back of the Scorpion, and because of its much slower orbital speed it won't move all that much within the constellation.
So the bottom line is that Saturn, Mars, and Antares will be in a really tight celestial hug in mid-to-late August. It's too bad that this will occur so close to the horizon, but it will still be eye catching.
If you happen to be taking a summer vacation anywhere in the southern half of the U.S. in August, definitely keep this great constellation and celestial hugging in mind, as the show will be easier to see higher in the sky.
Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/Paul and is author of the book, “Stars, a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations” published by Adventure Publications available at bookstores at http://www.adventurepublications.net.
