Congrats to the observant few

Congratulations to the few of you--the precious few--who caught my misstatement two weeks ago that Libra was to the upper left of Scorpius. Anybody with a star chart knows that Libra is to the upper right of Scorpius.

Guess I am going to need to start carrying a rock in my left hand so I can tell the difference.

Okay, back to our tour of Scorpius. We left off at the very nice little star cluster NGC6231, or the Northern Jewel Box, in the curve where the fishhook turns left.

If we follow the curve of the hook out and up to the end, we see two modestly bright stars that have been called "the stinger" or the Cat's Eyes.

The star Shaula is on the left and the star Lesath is on the right. Through binoculars the pair do sort of look like the eyes of the cat staring back at you.

Shaula, also astronomically named Lambda Scorpii, in Arabic means "Raised Tail." It is a triple star system at about 570 light years away.

Lesath, astronomically named Epsilon Scorpii, is Arabic for "Bite of Poisonous Animal." It is about 580 light years away.

These two stars while marking the "potentially venomous sting" of the zodiacal beast, they also give us a nice jumping off point for a further tour of the Southern Milky Way.

For those of us living along the fortieth parallel, the Kansas-Nebraska border, this hook leading to the sting will almost touch the southern horizon. So make sure when you are observing you have a totally unobstructed view in that direction.

If you put the "poisonous pair" at the 5:00 position in your binocular field of view (FOV) at the 10:00 position you should find M7, also known as Ptolmey's Cluster, so named for the Greek astronomer Ptolemy who first described it in 130 A.D.

M7 is an open cluster located about 980 light years away. The best time for observing is after 9:30 pm MDT.

If you put M7 at about the 7:00 position in your FOV, look for the next star cluster--M6, another little jewel that is also an open cluster of stars. If you look very hard at M6 you will begin to see why it is called the "Butterfly Cluster."

In reality this pair of clusters can be seen without optical aid, however, binoculars enhance the view, or even a small telescope, if you have one.

SKY WATCH: New moon, August 7th. The planet Jupiter leaves the sky by 10:30 pm, leaving the sky to Saturn and Mars, both of which can be found near the constellation Scorpius. Mars on the right and Saturn on the left. Both are excellent candidates for telescopic examination during these next few weeks.

I am not am early morning astronomer, unless there is something worth getting up for. This event is worth getting up for. In the early morning hours of Friday, July 29, a slender crescent moon will be traipsing through Taurus, the Bull, and in the process totally cover the Hyades star cluster and then go on to just barely, and I mean just barely miss the star Aldebaran. The Hyades will be covered when the moon rises at 1:40 am, then watch as the moon moves on to slide right by Aldebaran. See if you can tell just how close the miss is.

NEXT WEEK: The Teapot and more astronomical blathering.