Constellations · Constellation · Leonis · Leo
Constellation
Leo
The Nemean lion Hercules strangled for his first labour — one of the few constellations that actually looks like its name.
- Genitive
- Leonis
- Area
- 947 square degrees · 12th of 88
- Brightest star
- Regulus · magnitude 1.36
- Naked-eye stars
- 123 brighter than magnitude 6.5
- Highest at midnight
- late February
Myth
No weapon could pierce the lion’s hide, so Hercules choked it and then wore its skin as armour.
Look for
His head and mane are the Sickle, a backwards question mark ending in Regulus. Regulus sits so close to the Sun’s path that the Moon regularly passes in front of it.
Look for
Every November the Leonid meteors radiate from the Sickle. In 1833 they fell like snow, thousands an hour — the storm that started the scientific study of meteors.