The Leo Constellation
An Audience With A King

The King Of Beasts, the Leo constellation makes his appearance in April.

The Leo constellation is located south of Ursa Major-The Big Dipper. Between Cancer to the west and Virgo to the southeast.

Hercules as one of his 12 labors had to skin the Nemean lion. The lion's skin and fur were unable to be cut by stone or metal.

Hercules wrestled with and eventually choked the lion to death. He then skinned the lion with its own claws. Hercules took the lion's pelt and wore it as a cloak of armor and used the head for a helmet.

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The constellation Leo is very recognizable. Shaped like a sickle or backwards question mark(?)at its head and a body like a rectangle that comes to a triangle point at the rear. Personally I think of it more as a coat hanger with the hook too far forward.

The tail was shortened and some of the stars were used to form the constellation Coma Berenices.

Right Ascension: 11 hours

Declination: 15 degrees

Visible between latitudes +90 and -65 degrees

Best seen in April at 9:00 PM local time

There are quite a few named stars in constellation Leo a few of them are: REGULUS (Alpha Leonis) DENEBOLA (Beta Leonis) ALGIEBA (Gamma 1 Leonis)

Wolf 359 a faint red dwarf,mentioned in the Star Trek:The Next Generation episodes “Best Of Both world's”(ending and opening episodes seasons 3&4), is also in Leo. Only Alpha Centauri and Barnards star are closer to us than Wolf 359.

The Leonids meteor shower occurs in November, peaking on November 14–15. Its parent body is Comet Tempel-Tuttle, which causes significant outbursts every 35 years. The normal peak rate is approximately 10 meteors per hour.

The January Leonids are a minor shower that peaks between January 1 and 7.

Leo's visible roar is in the many bright galaxies and multiple star systems. The stargazer has plenty to look at.

M65, M66, and NGC3628 form the "Leo Triplet" of galaxies. 

M95,M96 and M105 are also easily spotted.

M65, M66, M95 and M96 are visible in small telescopes and larger scopes will reveal much more.

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Regulus or Alpha Leonis is a blue-white star of magnitude 1.4, 77.5 light-years from Earth. It is a double star divisible in binoculars.

Denebola, is at the opposite end of the constellation to Regulus. It is a blue-white star of magnitude 2.1, 36 light-years from Earth

Algieba, is a binary star. It can be separated in small telescopes.

R Leonis is a bright red giant variable star in the Leo constellation.

There are several other bright double and binary stars in Leo. Many can be resolved in binoculars and small telescopes. And the constellation comes alive in medium to large scopes.

Celestial Solar System › ZODIACS › Leo