Scorpius

Scorpius is a Zodiacal constellation otherwise known as the Scorpion. It is one of the 48 Greek constellations originally described by the 2nd century astronomer Claudius Ptolemy (Wikipedia). Scorpius remains one of the 88 modern constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union (Wikipedia).

Scorpius (abbrev. = Sco; genitive = Scorpii) covers 497 square degrees or 1.20% of the celestial sphere making it the 33rd largest constellation. It contains 167 stars brighter than apparent magnitude 6.5, the brightest star being Antares (Alpha Scorpii). See the Scorpius Star Chart for a figure illustrating this constellation including the identification of its brighter stars.

For more information see the entries for Scorpius at Wikipedia and U. Wisconsin. For a chart of Scorpius, see Sco (IAU).


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