Alpha Scorpii is Antares: "the rival of Mars".

Antares is a red giant, more than 300 times the size of the sun. The name refers to its colour, a unique glittering metallic red.

Antares is easily found in the mid-Spring skies, to the southeast of Spica. It makes a large triangle with Vega and Arcturus and is one of the pointer stars in the summer skies in the northern hemisphere: the summer pointers.

In the same field as Antares is the star cluster M4, although its individual stars won't be resolved in binoculars.