Dear Diary…
Part 1: The Astronomy
Leo, Latin for Lion, is one of the 88 constellations delimiting our skies. This constellation is on Cancer’s west and Virgo’s East, it’s surrounded by Leo Minor, Coma Berenices, Sextans and Hydra. It’s very easy to spot its alpha star of 1,34 magnitude, Regulus: either by going from Ursa Mjor or from Gemini’s Pollux and Castor.
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| Constellation of Leo |
This constellation is also one of the 12 zodiac constellations as it’s situated along the ecliptic, and it’s home to many interesting stars and deep sky objects.
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| Getting to Regulus From Gemini |
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| Getting to Regulus from Ursa Major |
Here’s a small table of its main stars:
Name
|
Magnitude
|
Distance (ly)
|
Type
| |
α Leonis
|
Regulus
|
1.34
|
79.3
|
Four-star system
|
β Leonis
|
Denebola
|
2.23
|
35.9
|
Main sequence star
|
γ Leonis
|
Zosma
|
2.58
|
58.4
|
Main sequence star
|
δ Leonis
|
Algieba
|
2.61
|
130.2
|
Binary star system
|
ϵ Leonis
|
Ras Elased Australis
|
3.12
|
246.7
|
Bright giant
|
θ Leonis
|
Chort
|
3.41
|
165.1
|
Main sequence star
|
η Leonis
|
Al Jabbah
|
3.58
|
1269.1
|
Supergiant
|
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| Stars of the Leo constellation |
Let’s discuss few of its deep sky objects:
Probably one of the most famous deep sky objects credited to Leo is the Leo Triplet of Galaxies which is three spiral galaxies that appear close to each other when viewed from Earth: M65, M66 and NGC3628.
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| Clockwise from top left NGC3628, M65, M66 |
M95 and M96 form an other interesting group of Leo galaxies. Both pairs of M95, M96 and M65, M66 are some 30 million light years away. M95 is believed to be home to a recent supernova that occurred at the beginning of 2012.
