Scorpious' claws, head and "stinger"

Event Date: April 21st
Time: 4:00 AM

Brief

For one of my early entries last month, I mentioned Scorpious, and how its number of brightest stars and boundaries have changed since long ago.  Bordering zodiacal constellation Libra is faint overall, and its brightest stars used to belong to Scorpious.  They are labeled as the "claw" stars below.  Zubeneschamali (north) and Zubenelgenubi (south) once represented the claws of the Scorpion.  What happened, and why the change?? Find out here.  In short, if you don't find the change to your satisfaction, blame the Romans:
http://my.execpc.com/60/B3/culp/astronomy/Summer/scorpius.html

A then-and-now image of Scorpious and (then) Libra show, to indicate the change.
The image shows the current boundaries of Scorpious and Libra the way they are today, along with the stick figures.  Both are visible as dawn breaks in the west-southwest, for non-morning types who don't want to wake up before dawn to see them in darker skies.

*click on images to enlarge: courtesy of Starry Night Pro Plus, version 6.4.3, by Simulation Curriculum Corp.

Detailed

To easily see Scorpious, look for some of its brighter stars and the curvy "head", the heart Antares, which I mentioned last month, as a super-red giant star.  One extra star that I will label is a double star called Shaula.  This star marks the stinger at the end of the scorpion's tail, and can be seen much more easily from high elevations with no obstructions.  *If very high, from the window of a plane at night with the cabin lights dimmed, Shaula and the entire constellation can be seen more easily, latitudes south of 45º.  At low and mid-northern latitudes, it is easiest to see the figure out the window more hours of the evening, since it doesn't get as high as it does at southern latitudes.  Try this sometime, if you have a window seat facing south during a moon-free sky...it is extremely cool!