Scorpius

Aya Yoneguchi

Scorpion is the symbol for Scorpio, a ground-dwelling killer with a poisonous sting in its tail and the eagle, a far-seeing predator soaring above petty problems into the spiritual sky. Scorpio is the eighth sign of the zodiac, and is a feminine sign. It is ruled by mars, the warrior planet, and the mysterious Pluto, the planet of transformation. If you live in the northern hemisphere of the earth, Scorpio crawls across the southern sky, close to the horizon. But if you live in the southern hemisphere, it passes high in the sky. The bright star Antares marks the heart of the arachnid, and its long curving tail to the south. The Scorpion once had claws but they were cut off by Julius Ceaser to form Libra. You can usually see Scorpius where stars are concerned. Antares is an unmistakable, brilliant red super giant star at the heart of the Scorpio. Scorpius is one of the largest, brightest globular cluster in the sky. Scorpius is one of the few constellations that can be easily seen in the clear southern horizon, next to Sagittarius. Scorpio is the lowest in the declination of the zodiac constellations. Scorpius is better to be seen in the dark at least ten or ten-thirty local time, so go outside between eleven and twelve midnight. Scorpius looks somewhat like a scorpion with its curving tail and hooked claws during the summer sky along the southern horizon situated on the rich Milky Way field. First you see a line of three stars close together in a row, and then below these brilliant ruddy Antares comes into view. The traditional dates that astrologer use to determine you birth sign are wrong, these dates were made up 2000 years ago and since then the earth had moved around its axis and has changed things. The dates have been pushed forward. The sun only spends 6 days in Scorpius from November 23rd to the 29th. The sun spends more time in the 13th sign Ophiuchius. Scorpius has 15 main stars in its asterism and 47 Bayer Flamsteed designated stars within its confines. Scorpius was the name of the scorpion that the earth goddess Gaia sent to kill Orion by stinging him on the heel. The gods then placed Orion and Scorpius on opposite sides of the sky so there could be no more trouble between them. The Mayans of Central America named Scorpius the sign of the dead-god.

Antares is the 15th brightest star in the sky. Antares gets its name from the ancient Greek, which means Anti-Ares; Ares is the Greek god of war and is also called Mars by the Romans. Antares and Mars are linked because they are the same color and they both have the same color and brightness. Antares is also a red supergiant star in the Milky Way galaxy. Its spectral type is about 550 AUs. Antares is a variable star, whose apparent magnitude varies from +0.9 to +1.8. Antares is a class M supergiant star, with a radius of approximately 800 times that of the sun; if it were placed in the center of our solar system, its outer surface would lie between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Antares is approximately 600 light-years (180 pc) from our solar system. Its visual luminosity is about 10,000 times that of the Sun. The best time to view Antares is on or around May 31 of each year, when the star is at opposition to the Sun. At this time, Antares rises at dusk and sets at dawn, and is in view all night. For approximately two to three weeks on either side of November 30, Antares is not visible at all, being lost in the Sun's glare; because it is longer in the Northern Hemisphere than in the Southern Hemisphere, since the star's declination is significantly south of the celestial equator. This star has an absolute magnitude of -5.28. Antares coordinates between 647.9 and 754.1. Scorpius stands near the Milky Way galaxy much like other Constellations.

The Milky Way is simply the common name for the galaxy that encompasses our solar system. It is a barred spiral galaxy that is part of the Local Group of galaxies. Its nameis a translated Via Lactea in Latin. The term Milky Way refers to the band of light that the galaxy lights from in the night sky while the galaxy receives its full name Milky Way Galaxy. The Milky Way is also on a spur off one of the spiral arms of the galaxy from earth we see a white light in the sky arching across the entire celestial plane. The plane of the Milky Way is 60 degrees to the ecliptic. The stellar of the Milky Way Galaxy is approximately 100,000 light years in diameter, and is estimated to contain at least 200 billion stars thick or maybe even up to 400 billion stars. The distance from the Sun to the galactic center is now estimated at 26,000 ± 1400 light-years, while older estimates could put the Sun as far as 35,000 light-years from the central bulge. The mass of the galaxy is 750 billion and one trillion solar masses. Its magnitude is at 22.0 MPSA Milky Way band. The Milky Way Galaxy is about 13.2 billion years old.

M4 globular star cluster is one of the largest star clusters in our galaxy because of the amount of stars in the cluster. The cluster includes over 10,000 stars in a loose cluster with no concentration. M4 is poor in giant stars meaning that there are not as many giant stars in the M4 globular cluster. This particular cluster lies over a degree west of Antares massive with massive grouping of stars that circle over our galaxy. M4 is about 0.8 magnitudes because of the dark nebulosity in that part of the sky, which is near the Milky Way from our point of view. The name of the category of the star cluster is derived from globules a small sphere from Latin. The distance from the earth is 7,000 light years away form the nearest globular cluster. The Globular star cluster is also around 13 billion years old like the Milky Way galaxy, the star cluster was discovered in 1993. The diameter of the star cluster is about 36 minutes of arc more than that of the full moon, corresponds to a linear diameter of about 75 light years. It?s an open star cluster one of the most open, or loose, globular clusters. The globular star cluster coordinates right ascension 94 arc degrees in the sky. The globular cluster was among the first objects to from in the galaxy. M4 is a gas like Jupiter.

nebula is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen gas, helium gas and plasma. Nebulas often form star-forming regions. A nebula common name is emission nebula, this happens if a star is not hot enough, their lights reflect by the dust and can be seen as a white or bluish reflected nebula. Diffused emission nebula is often call HII regions they are mainly consisted of ionized hydrogen. A type of nebula ranging from huge masses presenting relatively high surface brightness down to faint, Milky Way structures that are delectable only with long exposures and special filters; may contain both dust and gas or may be purely gaseous. The diffuse nebula coordinates at 159.54 degrees and 11.29 degrees. NGC6334 is a red diffused nebula with a size of about 20 arc minutes positioned at around a tail of scorpion. It consists of several segments of three round red lights and a dimmed vast region, only appears clearly on long-exposed photos. The distance of the nebula is estimated approximately 1230 light years.Apparent size 20 inches real size 7.2 light years, and its magnitude distance is also 1230 light years. NGC6357 is one vast hydrogen gaseous nebula spreads around the tail of scorpius. The nebula and NGC6334 are paralleled just 2 degrees apart; it should be easily able to capture these attractive objects in a single frame by using of medium. Nebula NGC6357 has an apparent size of about 50arc minutes and is often called ?The cluster Amaryllis nebula.? These nebulas can be seen with the naked eye interstellar gas clouds lit up by hot stars. A clouds interstellar gas and dust glows because of the effect on it of ultraviolet radiation from nearby stars. The description of a diffuse nebula dates from earlier times when nebulas were defined according to their optical appearance. A diffuse nebula was one which retained its fuzzy appearance under magnification through a large telescope as to one that could be resolved into stars.

• James B. Kaler, 1997. Cosmic Clouds.Scientific American Library,W.H Freeman (German edition: Kosmische Wolken, 1998).

  I used this web for the Star cluster part of my project, I got some good picture from here
  and all the information was all here also.

• tcaep.co.uk at http://www.scenta.co.uk/tcaep/astronomy/constellations/index.htm

  Had a chart of all of the stars which helped me figure out my Diagram and was a faster way to find the
  Magnitude of my other stars and there right ascension and declination as well as there magnituge.

• Constellation Chart Wingmaker Products, 1996. Web. 1 Dec. 2009.
  .

  This web page was helpful because it had a chart of my constellation that helped me with
  its magnitude and apparent magnitude.

• Constellations: Scorpius 'the Scorpion' BBC, June 2008. Web. 1 Dec. 2009.
  .

  This web page had the whole constellation of Scorpius I used this cite a lot because it has a
  lot of good information, about Scorpius.

• Chéseaux , Philippe. Messier 4 N.p., 21 Aug. 2007. Web. 1 Dec. 2009.
  .

  This web had the nebula M4 I got all of my diffuse nebula information from here.

• Fishhook? Snake? Letter "J"? It's Scorpius the Scorpion! ASTRO UTAH, 1993. Web. 1 Dec.
  2009. .

  This certain Web page had Scorius information from what it is to how far it is from the
  earth and why Scarpius look the way it does.

• http://www.barransclass.com/astr1070/const/Yoneguchi/Scorpius.html

  I used our Barrens web page to look up the magnitude for the star and also helped me find
  some other interesting facts about Scorpius.

• Gribbin, John, and Mary Gribbin. From Here to infinity. New York: Sterling Publishing Co.,Inc,
  2008. 160-85. Print.

  I also used our classroom book for the milky Way Galaxy, i got alot of good info for the
  Milky Way for our Astronomy book.