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07-11-2023 – Ephemeris – How to find Scorpius the scorpion

July 10, 2023 2 comments

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Tuesday, July 11th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 20 minutes, setting at 9:28, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:08. The Moon, 2 days past last quarter, will rise at 2:02 tomorrow morning.

There’s a large constellation located low in the south at about 11 tonight. It’s Scorpius the scorpion. Its brightest star is Antares in its heart, a red giant star, that I’ve gotten calls about it as being a UFO. From Antares to the right is a star, then a vertical arc of three stars that is its head. The Scorpion’s tail is a line of stars running down to the left of Antares, swooping to the horizon before coming back up and ending in a pair of stars that portray his poisonous stinger. There is a beautiful star cluster, NGC 6231, seen in binoculars at that first bend in the tail that is unfortunately too low to appreciate from this far north. I was very impressed with it when spotting it from the Florida Keys when I was down there in 1986 to observe Halley’s Comet.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT –4 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Scorpius animated finder with claw stars
Scorpius animated finder for 11:30 pm July 11th. The Arabs saw a bigger scorpion with Antares in the upper part of its body, the arc of three stars near its head and its claws extended to Zubeneschamali (North Claw) and Zubenelgenubi (South Claw). The latter two stars belong to Libra the scales. Created using Stellarium and GIMP.
NGC6231 - a great binocular star cluster visible from south of Michigan. Created using Stellarium.
NGC 6231 – a great binocular star cluster visible from south of Michigan. It looks a lot better than this in binoculars. Created using Stellarium.
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