Antares has played a big role in the skylore of many cultures. And it’s not hard to understand why. It’s quite bright, it has a fiery orange color, and it’s near the ecliptic – the Sun’s path across the sky. The Moon and planets are close to the ecliptic as well, so they periodically swing past Antares. In fact, the Moon snuggles quite close to it late tonight.

In western skylore, Antares represented the heart of Scorpius, the scorpion. After Orion the hunter bragged that he could kill any beastie on Earth, the angry gods sent the scorpion to sting him to death. They then put Orion and the scorpion on opposite sides of the heavens, so one rises as the other sets.

Antares and the surrounding stars also represented a scorpion in the mythology of the Maya and several other cultures. But others saw Antares differently. In China, it was the “fire star” – a description of its color. It and a couple of nearby stars represented the heart of a dragon. And in Hawaii, Antares was part of a fishhook used by the god Maui.

The star itself is worthy of its reputation. It’s a dozen or more times heavier than the Sun, hundreds of times wider, and tens of thousands of times brighter – a supergiant star with some supergiant stories.

Antares is just a skosh away from the Moon as they climb into good view tonight, by midnight. They’ll still be close as dawn twilight erases the scorpion’s mighty heart from view.

Script by Damond Benningfield