Leo shown ready to pounce in the Atlas Coelestis of John Flamsteed (1729).
In his chest can be found the bright star Regulus, labelled Alpha. Leo lieson the Sun’s path around the sky, the ecliptic, here marked by a dashed line.
It is easy to make out the shape of a crouching lion in the stars of Leo, its head being outlined by a sickle-shape of stars. Marking the lion’s heart (where Ptolemy located it) is the constellation’s brightest star, Alpha Leonis, called Regulus, Latin for ‘little king’; its Greek name, Basiliscos, had the same meaning. The tail is marked by the star Beta Leonis, called Denebola from the Arabic for ‘the lion’s tail’.
Gamma Leonis is called Algieba, from the Arabic meaning ‘the forehead’; this seems puzzling, since according to Ptolemy it lies in the lion’s neck, but the Arabs saw here a very much larger lion than the one visualized by the Greeks. Gamma Leonis is a celebrated double star, consisting of a pair of yellow giant stars divisible in small telescopes. Delta Leonis is called Zosma from a Greek word meaning ‘girdle’ or ‘loin cloth’, mistakenly applied to this star in Renaissance times.
It is easy to make out the shape of a crouching lion in the stars of Leo, its head being outlined by a sickle-shape of stars. Marking the lion’s heart (where Ptolemy located it) is the constellation’s brightest star, Alpha Leonis, called Regulus, Latin for ‘little king’; its Greek name, Basiliscos, had the same meaning. The tail is marked by the star Beta Leonis, called Denebola from the Arabic for ‘the lion’s tail’.
Gamma Leonis is called Algieba, from the Arabic meaning ‘the forehead’; this seems puzzling, since according to Ptolemy it lies in the lion’s neck, but the Arabs saw here a very much larger lion than the one visualized by the Greeks. Gamma Leonis is a celebrated double star, consisting of a pair of yellow giant stars divisible in small telescopes. Delta Leonis is called Zosma from a Greek word meaning ‘girdle’ or ‘loin cloth’, mistakenly applied to this star in Renaissance times.
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