The great winter constellations continue their gradual retreat to the west from night to night. By early June much of Orion and his gang will already be below the western horizon at the end of evening twilight. All of this is because of Earth’s orbit around the sun, but in the drama of the night sky it appears as if the spring constellation Leo the Lion is chasing away the winter stars.
Leo is leading the charge of the less impressive spring constellations and it is easy to find. Just look high in the southeastern sky for a backward question mark or sickle leaning slightly to the left. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see it as a profile of the king of the beasts. There’s a fairly bright star, Regulus, at the bottom of the question mark that marks the heart of Leo, and the rest of the sickle outlines the head of the lion. Regulus is a slightly distant celestial neighbor, about 77 light-years away. If you’re new to this column, one light-year is the distance light travels in the vacuum of space in a year’s time, and equals a little less than 6 trillion miles. Regulus is much larger than our home star, the sun. In fact, it’s more than 4 million miles in diameter, five times the sun’s girth.
The sickle isn’t all there is to Leo. To the left of the backward question mark, in a distinct triangle that outlines the hindquarters of the beast, the moderately bright star on the far left side is Denebola. At a distance of 36 light years, the light we see from Denebola tonight left that star in 1970, the year the Beatles broke up and the median household income in the U.S. was less than $9,000.
There are many legends and myths stories about Leo. I think the best one comes from the Greeks, and it involves Hercules, the mighty hero. He was not always a hero. In fact, he committed mass murder after being driven temporarily insane by his marriage to the evil princess Megara. Hercules was immensely remorseful, and Eurystheus, king of Mycenae, assigned Hercules twelve great labors to atone for his sins.
His first labor was to slay a mighty lion that was a terror of the land, devouring anyone that got in his way. Many a brave hunter tried to slay the lion, but became the lion’s lunch instead. Leo was so tough that normal spears could not pierce his hide. Hercules had his work cut out for him. He stalked the lion for weeks, and finally the opportunity presented itself. He found the lion asleep in a cave. Moving as fast as he could, Hercules attacked the lion from the rear and went right for its thick neck. With his tremendous strength and giant hands, he struggled with the beast for hours but finally choked the lion with his bare hands. To commend this momentous accomplishment the gods placed both Leo and Hercules in the skies. The constellation Hercules can be seen in the evening skies starting in the early summer.
Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and author of the new book “Washington Starwatch,” available at bookstores and on his Web site, www.lynchandthestars.com.
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