Scutum is one of these early modern constellations with a political agenda that nearly did not make the final cut in 1922. Where now are the similar constellations Harpa Georgii, Sceptrum Brandenburgicum or Taurus Poniatovii (for which see Ophiuchus and Serpens)? The Danzig astronomer Johannes Hevelius introduced Scutum Sobiescianum in 1684 to honour King John III Sobieski of Poland who provided Hevelius with assistance after his observatory had been destroyed in a fire in 1679. It was not universally popular with astronomers. John Flamsteed, for example, allocated its few stars to Aquila. However, the small constellation had a powerful ally in American-Argentinian astronomer Benjamin Apthorp Gould, for it was Gould’s reform of the constellations that paved the way for the final determination of the modern constellations in the 1920s. Perhaps one element in its survival was the conversion of the clearly honorific Scutum Sobiescianum into the more mundane Scutum. The constellation is an irregular quadrilateral with four major stars which are all fourth or fifth magnitude; the brightest is Alpha Scuti which is magnitude 3.8. As such, it is pretty well invisible, but it lies in a rich region of the Milky Way not far from the galactic centre.

Scutum’s most important objects are two variables. Delta Scuti [1] is the prototype of a class of pulsating variables; it is magnitude 4.7 with a slight variability. R Scuti [2] is a pulsating yellow supergiant and is the brightest of the RV Tauri variables. It has a marked change in magnitude from 4.2 to 8.6, with a long irregular period for its type. 

There are two star clusters of note and a star cloud. The Wild Duck Cluster (M11) [3] is seen either as a single swimming duck or a flight of ducks, take your pick. It is a rich and compact cluster which is magnitude 5.8. It is just over 6,000 light-years away and is about 320 million years old. It was first spotted by German astronomer Gottfried Kirch in 1681. Messier 26 [4] by contrast is a dim cluster (magnitude 8.0), which appears to be hollow in the centre like a celestial polo mint. It is just over 5,000 light-years away and is young, being only 85 million years old. Finally, the Scutum Star Cloud [5] is technically not a star cluster, but a group of stars in the Milky Way which is about five degrees across. It contains many dark nebulae.