Beta Scorpii - the Fourth Star of the Room

[DarkerSky]

Got the best view of my SSW horizon for ages in the early hours of the 12th June. Trained my 12" scope as low as my horizon would allow down to the head of the Scorpion.

Beta Scorpii came into view as a delicate double in my 17mm eyepiece (x70 magnification). The two white stars were easily split. Separation is approx 14 arc seconds. The primary is mag 2.9 and secondary mag 5.1. B1 was flashing through colours quite readily owing to the thickness of the atmosphere the light was travelling through.

Beta Scorpii's ancient Arabic name is Acrab. The Chinese knew it as the Fourth Star of the Room. I don't know the story behind why the ancient Chinese called it this, but would love to find out.

The pair are 530 light years away and are at least 10 times as massive as our sun.

Interestingly, Beta Scorpii and its companion are hot B-class stars. B1 temperature is 27,000k B2 temperature is 22,000K. Both are predicted to have short lives and both are predicted to end their lives as massive supernovae.

Here is a sketch as they are now. PA visually estimated about 010 degrees +/- 5 degrees

[lunator]

Hi Seb

Nice sketch

Cheers

Ian

[DarkerSky]

Cheers Ian

[QldLiz]

Thank you for that info Seb.

I will check it out, Scorpius is nice and high in our southern skies.

[Llamanaut]

check this link out, hope it helps...

Chinese constellations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[DarkerSky]

check this link out, hope it helps...

Chinese constellations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thanks for that link. I can see how that descriptor came about a bit better now. Absolutely fascinated by their constellation naming system. Thanks