Last week in my Starwatch column, I urged you to look in the low southern skies for one of my favorite constellations, Sagittarius the Archer, which actually looks more like a teapot. The celestial teapot is right next to the bright planet Jupiter, just to the lower right of the giant of our solar system.

Just to the right of Sagittarius (the teapot) is another one of the great summer constellations, Scorpius the Scorpion, the tenth brightest constellation in the night skies and one of those few constellations that actually looks like what it's supposed to be.

It looks like the teapot of Sagittarius is pouring right onto the tail of the Scorpion. Personally, I see Scorpius as "the giant fishhook" that trolls our low summer skies. I remember my grandma pointing out the big fishhook in the sky off the dock of her cabin near Garrison, Minn.

The brightest star in Scorpius is the bright brick red star Antares at the heart of the beast. It's the brightest star in that part of the heavens. To the right of Antares you'll see three dimmer stars in a vertical row that make up the scorpion's head. To the lower left of Antares, look for the long curved tail of the beast.

Antares has a definite reddish hue, demonstrating the fact that stars come in different colors. They are not just little white lights in the sky. A star's color tells a lot about its nature. Bluish white stars are the hottest; some have surface temperatures of over 30,000 degrees. Reddish stars like Antares are cooler.

In fact, Antares is cooler than our own sun, with a surface temperature of close to 6,000 degrees. (not in the shade). A thermometer plopped on the sun's outer layer would show close to 11,000.

Antares' reddish hue is also reflected in its name. Antares is derived from the Greek language and means "rival of Mars" since it has the same ruddy tone as the planet Mars. 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 4,000 miles across, a far celestial cry from the more than 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 of 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 Scorpio 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 Zeus' 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 studly hunter and they would have long distance conversations.

As time went on Diana eventually joined Orion in his hunting jaunts, ignoring her lunar duties.

Zeus learned of his daughter's 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 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 evenings.

As she looked back down to Earth she saw the giant scorpion not 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 end 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!

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and is author of the book, "Pennsylvania Starwatch," available at bookstores and at his Web site www.lynchandthestars.com.