Home > Constellations, Observing > Ephemeris: 7/02/2024 – Antares and the scorpion

Ephemeris: 7/02/2024 – Antares and the scorpion

July 2, 2024

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Tuesday, July 2nd. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 29 minutes, setting at 9:31, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:02. The Moon, 3 days before new, will rise at 3:26 tomorrow morning.

The constellation of Scorpius the scorpion is low in the south at 11 PM these nights. It’s bright star Antares will pass due south at 11:30 this evening. Antares is an interesting star in that it is a red giant star, and its name Antares* means “Rival of Mars” alluding to the fact that it and Mars appears to be the same color. And about every two years Mars passes near Antares, so unless you know your stars and planets you could mistake them for each other. Antares lies at the heart of the scorpion. To its upper right is the front part of its body and claws, and the trail of stars running down the other way, nearly to the horizon, in the south and back up in the south-southeast to the two stars of its stinger make its characteristic tail.

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.

*Breaking down Antares: Ant (Anti, against) – Ares (The Greek god of war the Romans called Mars).

Addendum

Scorpius Finder in four frames
Scorpius Finder in four frames. The 1st frame is the star field above the southern horizon as it might appear at 11 pm, July 2nd. The 2nd frame shows the constellation lines of Scorpius. I differ a bit from Stellarium in the lines above right of Antares. The 3rd frame is the constellation art that comes with Stellarium of Scorpius. The 4th frame is the star field again with the constellation lines, but seen without the horizon or atmospheric extinction getting in the way. The Arabs may have thought Scorpius was a larger constellation. There are two stars at the upper right corner of the frame that they saw belonged to Scorpius, which now belong to Libra. The upper one, nearest the top, is Zubeneschamali which means northern claw. The one below it and nearest the right edge of the image is Zubenelgenubi, the southern claw. These names predate Libra being its own constellation.

Note for trivia fans: Zubeneschamali is the longest star name at 14 letters.

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