The Scorpion and the Fishing Hook

If you look toward the south after the Sun sets, I bet you can find a trail of bright stars that looks like a curved fishing hook. At this time of the year, it is laying nearly sideways on the horizon. If you find the fishing hook, the official constellation you have found is Scorpius the Scorpion. 

Can you spot the curved fishing hook? Hint: Antares is the brightest star in the hook. Image Credit: Stellarium.

Scorpius is a nice example of how people around the world saw different shapes in the stars to help illustrate their legends. The people of the Polynesian islands saw a great fishing hook in the sky. They named the constellation Manaiakalani, the name of the god Maui's magical fishhook. According to their legends, Maui used the great hook to pull the Hawaiian islands off the ocean floor. He also used it to snare the Sun, slowing it down to create longer days in the summer.

Maui Snaring the Sun, pen and ink drawing by Arman Manookian, circa 1927, Honolulu Academy of Arts.

The ancient Babylonians and Greeks saw a different shape in the sky: a scorpion.  The reddish star Antares (Greek for "like Mars") is a supergiant star, hundreds of times larger than our Sun. Antares marks the heart of the scorpion. Travel down the trail of stars to find the stinger at the end of his tail. His claws and head are marked by three bright stars above Antares. See image below. 

Peoria, 9 PM. Image Credit: Stellarium.

Just west of Scorpius are the two bright planets, Mars and Saturn. Saturn is in between two stars that used to be part of Scorpius, Zubenelgenubi and Zubeneschamali. Try saying those names five time fast! They are from the Arabic language. Zubenelgenubi means "the northern claw", and Zubeneschamali means "the southern claw". The ancient Greek and Arab astronomers extended the scorpion's claws all the way up to these stars. The Romans, however, split up the scorpion constellation to create Libra, the balancing scales, because the Sun used to rise in Libra at the autumnal equinox - the balance of day and night. 

Scorpius as depicted in Johannes Hevelius' Firmamentum Sobiescianum sive Uranographia.

So on the next clear night, look for the scorpion or the fishing hook low on the southern horizon. Catch it soon before it slips away in the fall! And as always, visit the Dome at the Peoria Riverfront Museum to learn more about space, science and the current night sky.