This is one of the most colorful and beautiful areas in the sky. Antares ( Alpha Scorpii) is the bright star at the top right, a red super-giant, which is 700x larger in diameter than our sun. Its name means 'rival of Ares', because its color comes very close to Mars(from greek:Ares). The yellow-orange light is reflected by a surrounding nebula ( IC4606). At the left of Antares, the globular cluster M4 can be found and another globular cluster ( NGC6144 )is just below and left of Antares. 22 Scorpii is embedded in a smaller blue reflection nebula, and to the left, Al Niyat (Sigma Scorpii) excites a hydrogen cloud to radiate in the red light of H-alpha. In tne center, the light of Rho Ophiuchi is reflected beautifully by a huge nebula, IC4604.

The dark molecular clouds contains newly born stars, still enshrouded in the surrounding dust.