Leo Minor is a small, faint constellation in the northern sky, with only one star brighter than fourth magnitude.
The constellation’s name means “the smaller lion” in Latin. Leo Minor was created by the Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius in 1687. Hevelius created the constellation from 18 stars between the larger constellations Leo and Ursa Major.
Leo Minor is located between Ursa Major to the north, Cancer to the southwest, Lynx to the west, and Leo, which represents the larger lion, to the south. Notable deep sky objects in Leo Minor include Hanny’s Voorwerp, a quasar ionization echo, and the interacting galaxies Arp 107.
FACTS, LOCATION & MAP
Leo Minor is the 64th constellation in size, occupying an area of 232 square degrees. It is located in the second quadrant of the northern hemisphere (NQ2) and can be seen at latitudes between +90° and -40°. The neighboring constellations are Cancer, Leo, Lynx and Ursa Major.
Leo Minor does not have any stars brighter than magnitude 3.00 or located within 10 parsecs (32.6 light years) of Earth. The brightest star in the constellation is 46 Leonis Minoris, also known as Praecipua, with an apparent magnitude of 3.83. The nearest star is the binary system 11 Leonis Minoris (spectral class G8V/M5V), located at a distance of 36.46 light years from Earth.
Leo Minor has three stars with known exoplanets, HD 87883 (spectral class K0V), HD 82886 (G0D), and Kelt-3 (F2D).
Leo Minor belongs to the Ursa Major family of constellations, along with Boötes, Camelopardalis, Canes Venatici, Coma Berenices, Corona Borealis, Draco, Lynx, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.
Leo Minor does not contain any Messier objects. The Leo Minorids are the only meteor shower associated with the constellation. It takes place from October 19 to 27 every year and is linked to the comet C/1739 K1.
STORY
Leo Minor is a relatively new constellation, and has no myths associated with it. It was first depicted in 1687 in Johannes Hevelius’ Catalogus Stellarum Fixarum. In 1845, the catalogue was revised by Francis Baily, who assigned Greek letters to stars that were brighter than magnitude 4.5, but he did not give the constellation’s brightest star the designation Alpha in his British Association Catalogue.
In 1870, the English astronomer Richard A. Proctor renamed the constellation to Leaena, or the Lioness, in an attempt to shorten constellation names in order to make them easier to manage on star charts, but the name was not widely adopted.
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