"Seeing"

This is why the Hubble Space Telescope is such a success.

Antares (alpha Scorpii) - the heart of the scorpion. Magnitude = 1
Ante-Aries - "rival to Mars", due to its bright red colour.
Its location near the ecliptic means that Antares and Mars can appear quite close to each other.
Their next "meeting" will take place between 3-5 March 2001.
(Actually, Mars passes much closer to Acrab on the 21st February, 2001, since Acrab is closer to the ecliptic.
It is the matching red colour(s) which makes the proximity of Antares interesting, though.)
The flaming red colour is not too far off - the "flaming" part is a function of "seeing" plus the dodgey webcam.
Antares is a double star, but his companion is well and truly lost in the flaring.

Acrab or Graffias (beta Scorpii) - the left hand claw of the scorpion. Magnitude = 3 (& 5.5)
The green colour is a combination of the telescope's chromatic aberration plus the aforementioned dodgey webcam.
The correct naked-eye colour of Acrab is blue-white.
Acrab is also a double star, and look! You can discern the companion, faintly, just 14 arcseconds to the right of Acrab proper.
(Actually, Acrab is at least a quintuple star - but the other three are far to faint and close for us to see here.)

The motion from right to left is an indication of poor polar alignment of the telescope.

These photos taken on 28th September 2000.

Look at a lunar example of "seeing".
For another hi-magnification stellar animation, see the trapezium.

Return to near occultations or lunar eclipse or
Go on to Jupiter or the moon.
Information about the camera used for these photos.
(Telescope was a 120mm f8.3 refractor.)

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© PHS