It's hard to beat Orion and the winter gang of constellations. Bright and grouped together in the same part of the sky makes them easy to find and accessible. Spot Orion's Belt, and you can "unlock" them all. The same can't be said of the spring stars. The April-May sky lacks the punch of winter. Still, there are standouts. One is the Big Dipper, which forms the brightest part of Ursa Major the Great Bear. It climbs high in the northern sky this month and seems to pour the contents of its bucket onto the North Star below.
After Ursa Major, Leo is probably the easiest and brightest star-pattern of the season. You can search for it as soon as the sky gets dark. Face to the southeast, tilt your head back and look about two-thirds of the way up from the horizon. You should see a single bright star. That's Regulus, Leo's brightest. From Regulus, connect the fainter stars just above it into an arc resembling a backwards question mark. That's his head and mane. Now, extend your arm to the sky and look two fists to the left of the head for a flattish triangle of stars that represents the lion's rear and tail. See how easy that was?
A second way to find Leo is the locate the Big Dipper and shoot a line out the back of the Bowl southward. It will take you straight to Regulus, which you can use to "connect the dots" to the Sickle and triangle.
Leo is an ancient constellation that was well known to the Greeks and Romans, with roots reaching back to Mesopotamia 6,000 years ago. When we look up to admire its form, we relate, however distantly, with our long-gone ancestors who shared a similar fascination with the stars. I sometimes think of the folks who aren't around anymore to enjoy a starry night. I feel a tinge of sadness but am ever grateful for their reminder of the importance of the present.
In Greek mythology Leo was the Nemean Lion , a powerful beast with claws that could tear through armor and gold fur impervious to swords. As the first of his 12 labors, the demigod Hercules corned the lion in a cave, where he clubbed and strangled him to death. Good gosh. Zeus placed Leo in the sky to celebrate Hercules' bravery and heroism. Later, when the mortal half of Hercules died, his immortal self ascended Mt. Olympus, where Zeus placed him in the heavens, too. Both constellations share the spring sky, with Hercules rising later in the evening.
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Earlier this week we learned that more than 5,000 planets have been discovered orbiting stars other than the sun. One of the brightest stars to host an exoplanet is first magnitude Pollux in Gemini the Twins. A planet also accompanies Leo's third brightest star, Algieba, also known as Gamma Leonis. And it's a big one, too!
You'll find Algieba a little less than one fist above and slightly to the left of Regulus in the bend of the Sickle. The name comes from the Arabic Al Jabbah, the lion's mane.
Through a telescope, Algieba is one of the prettiest double stars in the spring sky. A magnification of 75-100x will show the orange-colored main star and a slightly fainter companion a short distance away. The planet, called Gamma 1 Leonis b , revolves around the brighter of the two every 428.5 days at a distance similar to Earth's distance from the sun. Discovered in 2009, Gamma 1 Leo b is only a little larger than Jupiter but nearly 8 times as massive.
Leo is also home to lots and lots of galaxies, some of them bright enough to see in a small telescope. Two of my favorites (and among the brightest) are the pair called M65 and M66, located below the lion's tail. They look like fuzzy ovals through a small telescope, but larger instruments and photos reveal their true nature as spiral galaxies similar in structure to our own Milky Way.
The next time it's clear, look up at the dreaded Nemean Lion. He lives still!
"Astro" Bob King is a freelance writer for the Duluth News Tribune.
