Leo
| Leo | |
|---|---|
 click for larger image |
|
| Abbreviation | Leo |
| Genitive | Leonis |
| Symbology | the Lion |
| Right ascension | 11 h |
| Declination | 15° |
| Area | 947 sq.
deg. Ranked 12th |
| Number of
stars ( magnitude < 3) |
3 |
| Brightest star |
Regulus (α
Leo) ( App. magnitude 1.4) |
| Meteor showers |
|
| Bordering constellations |
|
| Visible at latitudes between +90° and
−65° Best visible at 21:00 (9 p.m.) during the month of April |
|
Leo
( Latin for
lion, symbol
,
Unicode ♌) is a
constellation of the
zodiac. Leo lies between dim
Cancer to the west and
Virgo to the
east.
Notable features
This constellation contains many bright stars, such as Regulus (α Leonis), the lion's heart; Denebola (β Leonis); and γ1 Leonis (Algieba). Many other fainter stars have been named as well, such as δ Leo (Zosma), θ Leo (Chort), κ Leo (Al Minliar al Asad ), λ Leo (Alterf), and ( ο Leo (Subra).
Regulus, η Leonis, and γ Leonis, together with the fainter stars ζ Leo (Adhafera), μ Leo (Ras Elased Borealis), and ε Leo (Ras Elased Australis), make up the asterism known as the Sickle. These stars represent the head and the mane of the lion.
A former asterism representing the tuft of the lion's tail has since become its own constellation, Coma Berenices.
The star Wolf 359, one of the nearest stars to Earth's solar system (7.7 light-years), is in Leo. Gliese 436, a faint star in Leo about 33 light years away from the Sun, is orbited by one of the smallest extrasolar planets ever found. [1]
Notable deep sky objects
Leo contains many bright galaxies, of which the twins ( Spiral Galaxy M65, Spiral Galaxy M66) and ( Spiral Galaxy M95, Spiral Galaxy M96) are the most famous.
History of the name
Early Hindu astronomers knew it as Asleha and as Sinha, the Tamil Simham but later, influenced by Greece and Rome, as Leya or Leyaya, from the word Leo, as the Romans commonly called it.
Ovid wrote it as Herculeus Leo and Violentus Leo. Bacchi Sidus (Star of Bacchus) was another of its titles, the god always being identified with this animal, and its shape the one often adopted by him in his numerous transformations, while a lion's skin was his frequent dress. But Manilius had it Jovis et Junonis Sidus (Star of Jove and Juno), as being under the guardianship of these deities, perhaps appropriately considering its regal character, especially that of its lucida.
The Persians called it Ser or Shir; the Turks, Artan; the Syrians, Aryo; the Jews, Arye; and the Babylonians, Aru — all meaning a lion. In Euphratean astronomy it was additionally known as Gisbar-namru-sa-pan, variously translated, but by Bertin, as the Shining Disc which precedes Bel, "Bel" being our Ursa Major, or in some way intimately connected therewith.
History of the symbol
The adoption of this animal's form for the zodiac sign has been attributed to the fact that when the Sun was among its stars in midsummer the lions of the desert left their accustomed haunts for the banks of the Nile, where they could find relief from the heat in the waters of the inundation. Pliny wrote that the Egyptians worshipped the stars of Leo because the rise of their great river was coincident with the Sun's entrance among them. For the same reason the Sphinx is said to have been sculptured with Leo's body and the head of the adjacent Virgo, although Egyptologists maintain that this head represented one of the early kings, or the god Harmachis.
Distinct reference is made to Leo in an inscription of the walls of the Ramesseum at Thebes, which, like the Nile temples generally, was adorned with the animal's bristles, while on the planisphere of Dendera its figure is shown standing on an outstretched serpent. The Egyptian stellar Lion, however, comprised only a part of ours, and in the earliest records some of its stars were shown as a knife, as they now are as a sickle. Kircher gave its title there as Πιμεντεκεων, Cubitus Nili.
The astrological symbol
has been supposed to portray the animal's mane, but it also might be the animal's tail.
Gaius Julius Hyginus's writing published in
1488 and
Albumasar's in
1489 showing this latter member of extraordinary length, twisting between the hind legs and over the back, Hygnus's manuscript properly locating the star
Denebola in the end. But the
International
Dictionary says that this symbol is a corruption of the initial letter of
Λεων
(Leon).
Lajard's
Cultes de
Mithra mentions the hieroglyph of Leo as among the symbols of
Mithraic worship, but how their Lion agreed, if at all, with ours is not
known.
Mythology
In Greek mythology, it was identified as the Nemean Lion (and may have been a source of the tale) which was killed by Herakles during one of his twelve labours, and subsequently put into the sky.
Astrology
The Western astrological sign Leo of the tropical zodiac ( July 24 – August 23) differs from the astronomical constellation and the Hindu astrological sign of the sidereal zodiac ( August 10 – September 15).
In some cosmologies, Leo is associated with the classical element Fire, and thus called a Fire Sign (with Aries and Sagittarius). Leo is also one of the Fixed signs (along with Taurus, Scorpio, and Aquarius).
It is the domicile of the Sun. The Egyptian pharaoh Nechepso, and his priest Petosiris, taught that at the creation of the world the Sun rose here near Denebola, and hence Leo was Domicilium Solis, the emblem of fire and heat, and the "House of the Sun".
Each astrological sign is assigned a part of the body, viewed as the seat of its power. Leo rules the heart and spine.
Alchemy
In the symbolism of alchemy, Leo denoted the absorption or assimilation of one substance by another.