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Far from any lights, the sky fills with stars. Drawn from real star positions; bigger dots are brighter stars. See it from a city or the suburbs in the app.

✨ Constellation

Scorpius

The Scorpion, with red Antares at its heart.

Name means: The Scorpion
Best seen: July evenings
Where to see it: The southern half of Earth, and low in the sky from much of the northern half
Brightest star: Antares
Stars in the pattern: 14

Did you know?

Antares means “rival of Mars”, because its red colour looks like the planet.
In the myth the scorpion defeated Orion, so the two sit on opposite sides of the sky and are never high at the same time.

In this part of the sky

Sagittarius The Archer, whose brightest stars look like a teapot.

More NASA photos of ScorpiusStraight from NASA’s image library, in the app

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All of night sky

Orion The Hunter, with three bright stars in a row for his belt. Ursa Major The Great Bear, home of the Big Dipper. Ursa Minor The Little Bear, with Polaris at the tip of its tail. Cassiopeia A bright W of five stars, named after a boastful queen. Leo The Lion, whose head is a backwards question mark of stars. Taurus The Bull, with red Aldebaran as its glowing eye.

Facts: Star patterns: d3-celestial (IAU figures, Hipparcos star data). Stories: traditional Greek and Roman myths. Open Scorpius in the app.