The constellation Ophiuchus is found in the midst of the Serpens. The southern part of Ophiuchus dips into a very dense portion of the Milky Way, resulting in a great many deep sky objects. The Bayer stars of Ophiuchus are fairly bright, five of which have a magnitude brighter than 3.0. The brightest star, alpha Ophiuchi, is better known as Rasalhague, meaning "Head of the Snake Charmer". This is a rather close star, at 54 light years away

In Star Trek, Ophiucus III is the third planet of the Ophiucus system and a colony world that was being settled in the late 23rd century. Women were so scarce on the planet that intergalactic rogue Harcourt Mudd saw an opportunity in bringing them in from other worlds, to be sold as wives for the settlers. (TOS: "Mudd's Women")

In reality, Ophiuchus has a half-dozen or so visual doubles, and even more star clusters. In fact Ophiuchus has more globular clusters than any other constellation. The region encircling rho Ophiuchi is also of some interest. This area contains several dark clouds and nebulae that show the active formation of stars.

Barnard's Star is part of this constellation and the most rapidly moving star relative to the solar system, with a proper motion of 10.31". It is also the second closest star system to us, at a distance of 5.91 light years. This is a red dwarf, with a visual magnitude of only 9.5, and consequently not easily found. A slight oscillation in both the right ascension and declination of Barnard's Star has led observers to suggest the possibility that one or more planets orbit the star.