Hi, I'm Shannon Silverman, astrophysicist at the Clay center.

And welcome to Almost Heavens.

Here in West Virginia, we're just about halfway between the North Pole and the equator.

That means we are in the perfect spot to view everything the northern skies have to offer.

And even a little of the southern skies, too.

During the summer, tw particularly interesting stars can be seen not too far away from each other Arcturus and Antares.

Both of these stars are distinctly orange in the night sky.

Both are giants, and both are amongst the brightest stars that can be seen.

But each is very unique in their own ways.

We'll start with Arcturus.

Arcturus can be found several ways, but you probably don't need any of them.

Nothing in the summer night sky looks like Arcturus.

The star is bright, the brightest of any star in the Northern hemisphere.

And the fourth brightest star of the entire sky.

And in the summer i the brightest object in the sky.

Unless the moon, Venus or Jupiter are visible.

Even Mars never comes close to matching it.

But if you're not sure wher to start, find the Big Dipper.

Following the curve of the Big Dipper handle, it'll lead you in an arc straight to Arcturus.

Arcturus is a red giant star, and it's so bright.

Both because it's very close only about 37 light years away, and because as a giant star, it's very large at approximately 25 times the size of the sun.

More surface area means more light.

Kind of like how a large light bulb is brighter than a small one, even if they're the same wattage.

This combination of size an distance is what makes Arcturus so striking in our night sky and it's truly beautiful to see.

It also makes an excellent target to practice aiming and focusing a telescope.

However, when it come to giant stars, our other star, Antares far outdoes Arcturus.

Antares is not just a giant, but a supergiant spanning approximately 680 times the width of our sun.

This star is so large that if it were placed where our sun is, it would extend out into the asteroid belt.

Because of its huge size the star is one of the brightest in our sky.

Despite being approximately 550 light years away, finding injurie is tougher than finding Arcturus as it is much lower on the horizon and being here in West Virginia.

We may also have to worry about mountains blocking our view, but Antares is a southern hemisphere star, meaning we need to look south.

And by the time the sun sets, Antares will be due south and at its highest point, approximately 25 degrees above the horizon.

90 is overhead as the night goes on, it moves west to set in the southwest.

If you're not sure if you found entries, look for three bright white stars lined up nearby.

These are the claws of Scorpius the Scorpion, the constellatio that Antares forms the heart of.

Thank you for joining.

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Until next time.