Libra, Scorpius, Antares in the South: Photos

Last night, well after sunset, I went out with my camera to find Scorpio conveniently hanging in a dip in the horizon.  The best photo from the set shows not only Scorpio but parts of Libra and Ophiucus, and almost looks like a daytime shot:

Scorpius - click photos to enlarge

I was pretty impressed to see so many stars in the picture which I could not see with the naked eye, such as Sabik and others from Ophiucus and Zubeneschamali and others from Libra poking out of the clouds.  Scorpius's stars, including the 15th brightest of all, Antares; as well as Alniyat, Acrab, Dschubba, and a host of others, appear very sharp and brilliant in the sky, which the camera rendered blue after 8 seconds of exposure.

Antares is distinctly brighter than the other stars in Scorpius, however, the following clip from a picture I took later showing "the claw of Scorpio" better reveals the relative brightness and colors of Antares and the other stars.  The star and constellation were mythologically and astrologically associated with Mars because of the similar red coloring of Mars and Antares:

Claw of Scorpio

The claw of Scorpio will continue to dominate the Southern sky after sunset in the Northern Hemisphere for several more weeks, before it goes into hiding under the horizon for the winter.