All winter long and even during the first few weeks of spring in the Northwest, the mighty constellation Orion the Hunter is dominant in the southern skies, but the seasonal celestial times are a-changing.
The king of the celestial beasts, the constellation Leo the Lion, appears to have chased Orion and his entourage of bright stars toward the exits at the western horizon. Actually it’s Earth’s orbit around the sun that puts Leo on high.
Leo is definitely less flashy than Orion, but it’s a distinctive and famous constellation. Most people see it as two parts. The right side is an easy-to-see backward question mark with the moderately bright star Regulus marking the bottom dot. This sickle of stars outlines the profile of a lion’s head with Regulus as the heart.
The triangle of moderately bright stars to the left of Leo’s head form the lion’s hindquarters and tail.
Regulus is a Latin name that translates to the “little king” or “the prince.” but it’s not really very small. It’s nearly twice the diameter of our nearly million-mile-wide sun, and the outer layer of Regulus has a temperature of at least 20,000 degrees, about twice as hot as the sun.
That causes it to kick out 140 times more light than the sun. Regulus appears fainter because it’s 80 light-years away (a light-year equals nearly 6 trillion miles).
This spring Leo is being escorted by two bright planets: Mars, west of Leo’s head, and Saturn, below and to the left of the star Denebola at Leo’s tail.
Mars is easy to see since it’s the brightest starlike object in that immediate part of the sky and has a copperish-reddish hue. Even smaller scopes will allow you to see Saturn, with its ring system almost on edge, and at least some of its moons.
Leo is one of 13 constellations in what is called the zodiac band. Since Earth and the rest of the planets orbit the sun in nearly the same geometric plane, they are all found along this band of constellations that also lies along this plane.
In most cultures Leo is depicted as a lion. It is found in some of the earliest records we have of cave drawings of constellations from ancient Sumeria, in present day Iraq.
In Greek and Roman mythology Leo was a huge lion that terrorized the countryside devouring anything in its path. Many tried cpnquer the ferocious giant, but only mighty Hercules succeeded.
Egyptians see Leo as their famous sphinx, a mythological figure of half lion with a human head. The Egyptian sphinx was the seasonal sign of summer indicating that the life-giving Nile River was about to flood.
In Peru the stars of Leo are supposed to picture a puma pouncing on its prey. In China Leo’s a zodiacal horse. Christian cultures in the middle ages saw Leo as a reminder of Daniel in the lion’s den.
The waxing gibbous moon, approaching its full stage, can act as a guide to find Leo this week. As you can see in the diagram, the moon passes just under Mars being chased by Leo on Wednesday. On Thursday and Friday the waxing moon will slowly swing eastward, slipping just below Leo’s mighty paws.
Also this week you can watch as the very bright planet Venus approaches the bright Pleiades star cluster in the low western sky. About an hour after sunset, you’ll find Venus in the low western sky. It’s the brightest starlike object in the sky.
As the week begins you’ll see the Pleiades, otherwise known as the Seven Little Sisters, about seven degrees above Venus, or half the width of your fist held at arm’s length. Venus and the Pleiades will draw closer together, and by Saturday night they will be less than three degrees apart.
Venus is about 138 million miles away this week, and traveling to the Pleiades would force you to journey just under 2,400 trillion miles.
Mike Lynch is an astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and is author of the book, “Washington Starwatch,” available at bookstores and at his Web site www.lynchandthestars.com.
The Everett Astronomical Society welcomes new members. Go to www.everettastro.org/.
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