06/05/2004 01:00 UTC

Being as it's almost summer, I decided it was time to look south. Scorpius (also known as Maui's Fish Hook) never gets entirely above the southern horizon around here, but I thought it was worth a look. I was right. Four interesting objects found:
Akrab (beta Sco) - a double, close, with color contrast. Pretty.
Zeta Sco - another double, wide spaced and nearly identical color (yellow).
Mu Sco - still another double, wide spaced and nearly identical color (blue).
M4 - a bright, tight globular cluster. Better than M3 but not as good as M13.

I'm going to be vacationing in Hawaii this summer and I hope to see more of this part of the sky from Mauna Kea. The light pollution will be far less from there and the constellation will be around 20 degrees higher in the sky. That should make a world of difference.


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