The Discovery Center at Ridgefield

May 2012 Constellation of the Month: Leo

If you face south and look high in the sky, you'll see a very bright reddish object.  That's Mars, which is now in the constellation of Leo, the Lion.    

Every year, around March, Leo makes its appearance low in the  East, a sign that spring is on the way.  Leo is easily recognizable by the triangle and backwards question mark (known as "the Sickle") shapes it contains.  

When Mars doesn't happening to be passing through it, you can find Leo by starting with the Big Dipper.  Take the 2 stars at the end of the bowl which point to the North Star.  But follow the line they make in the opposite direction (south) about the same distance, and you'll find Leo

Its brightest star, Regulus is at the dot of the question mark.   It's actually a 3-star system with the blue-white main star about 140 times as bright as our sun, which is orbited by a pair of much fainter, much lower-mass red dwarfs.  There is also evidence of a 4^th star, which has not been directly observed.

The head of the Lion is outlined by the Sickle, and its hindquarters by the triangle.  Just below the triangle is a pair of spiral galaxies, M65 and M66, which can be seen in a small telescope – like the ones the Discovery Center brings to its astronomy events.   Every November, the meteors in the Leonid meteor shower appear to be coming from the direction of Leo.