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