Even people who have never found a constellation can usually pick out Leo. A backward question mark of stars, the Sickle, forms the lion's head and mane, and a triangle of stars to the east makes his hindquarters. It is one of the few constellations that looks like what it is named for.
The Nemean lion
The Greek story is the first of the twelve labors of Heracles. A huge lion terrorized the valley of Nemea, and its hide was so tough that no arrow, sword or spear could pierce it. Heracles finally caught the lion in its cave and strangled it with his bare hands. Then he skinned it, using the lion's own claws, since nothing else could cut the pelt, and he wore the skin as armor for the rest of his career. Zeus placed the lion in the sky to commemorate the fight.
A king in the sky
The brightest star in Leo is Regulus, whose name is Latin for "little king." It lies almost exactly on the ecliptic, the path of the sun, and the moon and planets often pass close to it. The ancient Persians counted it among the four "royal stars" that marked the corners of the heavens. In astrology Leo is ruled by the Sun, and it is a sign associated with pride, warmth and leadership.
The lion and the river
Egyptians saw the connection between the rising of the sun in Leo and the flooding of the Nile, and it is often suggested that this is why lion-head water spouts decorate Egyptian temples. The Great Sphinx at Giza, a lion with a human head, faces due east, toward the rising sun.
How to find it
Leo is at its best on spring evenings, riding high in the south. Look for the Sickle, a backward question mark, with Regulus at the bottom end as the dot. The triangle of stars that forms the lion's hindquarters sits to the east, and Denebola, the tail star, closes the shape.
On the star chart
Sidney Hall's plate is titled Leo Major and Leo Minor, and it shows two lions, the large one prowling at the bottom and the smaller one reaching out above it. The Little Lion was a new addition when the plates were made.
Little-known facts
- In November 1833 the Leonid meteor shower produced a storm of tens of thousands of shooting stars an hour, and it helped found the scientific study of meteors.
- Regulus spins so fast that it is flattened into an oval, rotating once in about 16 hours.
- Leo is one of the oldest named constellations, and Babylonian tablets from about 1000 BCE describe a lion in the same place.
- A small, dim constellation called Leo Minor, the little lion, was added in the 1680s by the astronomer Johannes Hevelius.
- Wolf 359, one of the nearest stars to the sun, lies in Leo.
Leo appears on our:
