Scheduled air date: 1999 Aug 16-22
As the planet Mars crosses from the constellation Libra into Scorpius this month, you can
use it to help locate the two brightest stars in Libra, Zubeneschamali and Zubenelgenubi.
These two star names are Arabic for "The Northern Claw" and "The
Southern Claw," respectively, and date back to when they were considered part of
Scorpius—before the Romans used them in their constellation Libra, the Scales.
Zubenelgenubi is about 65 light years from us and 25 times brighter than
our own Sun, while Zubeneschamali is about 140 light years from us and over 150 times as
bright as the Sun!
(Shown about 30 minutes after sunset for mid-Northern latitudes. Mars' positions are
shown at five-day intervals from the 16th through 31st.)
If you wish to view illustrations for other episodes, please see our Star Gazer Illustrated directory.
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Illustrations on this page were created using
TheSky Astronomy
Software, an advanced desktop planetarium program designed for Windows. Copyright © 1999-2006 by Software Bisque, Inc. |