♏︎ The lucky star of Scorpio: Antares
The brightest star in the constellation Scorpius (α Sco), magnitude 0.96.
The name is Greek and means 'rival of Ares', because it shines as red as Mars. Antares is a red supergiant, many hundreds of times the size of the Sun, about 550 light years away.
It stands highest around 10 pm in June. It can be seen from everywhere south of 47°N, and it never sets south of 70°S.
More on the constellation: Scorpius · The lucky stone: Topaz
The zodiac sign and the constellation of the same name no longer lie over each other, because the Earth's axis has turned in two thousand years: the true constellation.