Leo The Constellation The King Of Beasts

The king of beasts, Leo The Constellation makes his appearence
in April. Spring in the northern hemisphere, autumn in the southern.
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. The tail was shortened
and some of the stars were used to form the constellation Coma Berenices.
Constellation Leo Myth
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 then took the lion's pelt and wore it as a cloak of
armor and used the head for a helmet
Position In The Sky
The Leo constellation is located south of
the Big Dipper constellation
and northwest of the
constellation Virgo
Right Ascension: 11 hours
Declination: 15 degrees
Visible between latitudes 90 and -65 degrees
Best seen in April (at 9:00 PM)
There are quite a few named stars in constellation Leo
a few of them are:
REGULUS (Alpha Leo)
DENEBOLA (Beta Leo)
ALGIEBA (Gamma 1 Leo)
M65, M66, and NGC3628 form the "Leo Triplett". A trio of galaxies
in the constellation leo.
Wolf 359 a faint red dwarf is also in Leo. Only Alpha Centauri
and Barnards star are closer to us than Wolf 359.
Leo the Constellation to zodiac homepage
constellations and backyard stargazing
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