Antares is the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpius. It has the Bayer designation α Scorpii, which is Latinised to Alpha Scorpii. Often referred to as "the heart of the scorpion", Antares is flanked by σ Scorpii and τ Scorpii near the center of the constellation. Distinctly reddish when viewed with the naked eye, Antares is a slow irregular variable star that ranges in brightness from an apparent visual magnitude of +0.6 down to +1.6. It is on average the fifteenth-brightest star in the night sky. Antares is the brightest and most evolved stellar member of the Scorpius–Centaurus association, the nearest OB association to the Sun. It is located about 170 parsecs (550 ly) from Earth at the rim of the Upper Scorpius subgroup, and is illuminating the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex in its foreground.
Delta Scorpii is a binary star in the constellation of Scorpius. The primary star is named Dschubba.
V1974 Cygni or Nova Cygni 1992 was a nova, visible to the naked eye, in the constellation Cygnus. It was discovered visually with 10×50 binoculars on February 19, 1992, by Peter Collins, an amateur astronomer living in Boulder, Colorado. At that time he first noticed it, it had an apparent magnitude of 7.2. Nine hours later he saw it again, and it had brightened by a full magnitude. For this discovery Collins was awarded the AAVSO Nova Award in 1993. The nova reached magnitude 4.4 at 22:00 UT on 22 February 1992. Images from the Palomar Sky Survey taken before the nova event showed identified a possible precursor which had photographic magnitudes of 18 and 17, but the identification of the precursor is not firm.
18 Scorpii is a solitary star located at a distance of some 46.1 light-years from the Sun at the northern edge of the Scorpius constellation. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 5.5, which is bright enough to be seen with the naked eye outside of urban areas. The star is drifting further away with a radial velocity of +11.6.
V476 Cygni or Nova Cygni 1920 was a nova which occurred in the constellation Cygnus in 1920. It was discovered by William Frederick Denning, an English amateur astronomer, at 09:30 GMT on 20 August 1920, at which time it had a magnitude of 3.7. It reached a peak brightness of magnitude 1.7 on 23 August 1920. Its quiescent brightness is magnitude 17.09.
RS Ophiuchi is a recurrent nova system approximately 5,000 light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus. In its quiet phase it has an apparent magnitude of about 12.5. It has been observed to erupt in 1898, 1933, 1958, 1967, 1985, 2006 and 2021 and reached about magnitude 5 on average. A further two eruptions, in 1907 and 1945, have been inferred from archival data. The recurrent nova is produced by a white dwarf star and a red giant in a binary system. About every 15 years, enough material from the red giant builds up on the surface of the white dwarf to produce a thermonuclear explosion. The white dwarf orbits close to the red giant, with an accretion disc concentrating the overflowing atmosphere of the red giant onto the white dwarf.
Tau Scorpii, Latinized from τ Scorpii, formally known as Paikauhale, is a star in the southern zodiac constellation of Scorpius. The apparent visual magnitude of Tau Scorpii is +2.8, while parallax measurements yield a distance estimate of roughly 470 light-years (150 parsecs) from Earth.
ω1 Scorpii, Latinised as Omega1 Scorpii, is a star in the zodiac constellation of Scorpius. With an apparent visual magnitude of 3.95 it can be seen with the naked eye, 0.22 degree north of the ecliptic. Parallax measurements of this star give an estimated distance of around 470 light years from the Sun. It is a member of the Scorpius–Centaurus association.
Sigma Librae is a binary star in the constellation of Libra. The apparent visual magnitude is +3.29, making it visible to the naked eye. Based upon parallax measurements, this system is at a distance of roughly 288 light-years from the Sun, with a 2% margin of error. At that distance, the visual magnitude is diminished by 0.20 ± 0.17 from extinction caused by intervening gas and dust.
U Scorpii is a recurrent nova system; one of 10 known recurring novae in the Milky Way galaxy. Located near the northern edge of the constellation Scorpius it normally has a magnitude of 18, but reaches a magnitude of about 8 during outbursts. Outbursts have been observed in 1863, 1906, 1936, 1979, 1987, 1999, 2010, and 2022.
T Scorpii, or Nova Scorpii 1860, was a nova in the globular cluster Messier 80 (M80). It was discovered on 21 May 1860 by Arthur von Auwers at Koenigsberg Observatory and was independently discovered by Norman Pogson on May 28 at Hartwell observatory. It was at magnitude 7.5 at discovery, reaching a maximum of magnitude 6.8, outshining the whole cluster.
KT Eridani was a bright nova in the constellation Eridanus that produced an outburst in 2009. It was the first classical nova ever detected in that constellation. The nova was discovered at 12:52 UT on 25 November 2009 by K. Itagaki at Yamagata, Japan with a 21 cm patrol telescope. At the time of its discovery, it was a magnitude 8.1 object. The discovery occurred after the nova's peak brightness, but the All Sky Automated Survey system had detected the nova on three earlier occasions, allowing a more complete light curve to be produced. The peak magnitude, 5.4, was seen at 15:10 UT on 14 November 2009.
AH Scorpii is a red supergiant variable star located in the constellation Scorpius. It is one of the largest stars known by radius and is also one of the most luminous red supergiant stars in the Milky Way.
V5668 Sagittarii, also known as Nova Sagittarii 2015 Number 2 was the second and brighter of two novae in the southern constellation of Sagittarius in 2015. It was discovered by John Seach of Chatsworth Island, New South Wales, Australia on 15 March 2015 with a DSLR patrol camera. At the time of discovery it was a 6th magnitude star. It peaked at magnitude of 4.32 on March 21, 2015, making it visible to the naked eye.
V1309 Scorpii is a contact binary that merged into a single star in 2008 in a process known as a luminous red nova. It was the first star to provide conclusive evidence that contact binary systems end their evolution in a stellar merger. Its similarities to V838 Monocerotis and V4332 Sagittarii allowed scientists to identify these stars as merged contact binaries as well.
OS Andromedae, known also as Nova Andromedae 1986, is a classical nova that appeared in the constellation Andromeda during 1986. It was discovered at 10:34 UT on 5 December 1986 by Mitsuri Suzuki, a 28-year-old school teacher living in Ena, Japan. He photographed the portion of the Milky Way that passes through northern Andromeda with a 200-mm telephoto lens, and found the nova when its apparent magnitude was 8.0. Two days later it reached a peak apparent visual magnitude of 6.3.
AK Scorpii is a Herbig Ae/Be star and spectroscopic binary star about 459 light-years distant in the constellation Scorpius. The star belongs to the nearby Upper Centaurus–Lupus star-forming region and the star is actively accreting material. The binary is surrounded by a circumbinary disk that was imaged with VLT/SPHERE in scattered light and with ALMA.
HM Sagittae is a dusty-type symbiotic nova in the northern constellation of Sagitta. It was discovered by O. D. Dokuchaeva and colleagues in 1975 when it increased in brightness by six magnitudes. The object displays an emission line spectrum similar to a planetary nebula and was detected in the radio band in 1977. Unlike a classical nova, the optical brightness of this system did not rapidly decrease with time, although it showed some variation. It displays activity in every band of the electromagnetic spectrum from X-ray to radio.
RT Virginis is a variable star in the equatorial constellation of Virgo, abbreviated RT Vir. It ranges in brightness from an apparent visual magnitude of 7.7 down to 9.7, which is too faint to be visible to the naked eye. Based on parallax measurements made with the VLBI, the distance to this star is approximately 740 light years. It is receding from the Sun with a radial velocity of 17 km/s.
