Constellations are memorable maps to the stars, dating back many thousands of years.

Many of the constellations are associated with the Gods and Godesses of ancient Greek mythology.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has divided the sky into 88 official constellations with exact boundaries, so that every direction or location in the sky belongs to one constellation. Astronomers use this as a rough guideline for location objects, e.g. when they say that Mars is in the constellation of Gemini, it can be found within the borders of the constellation. The constellations that the Sun pass through each year are known as the Zodiac.

Leo Minor

Little Lion

Leo Minor is a rather dim constellation that can barely be recognized as a triangle and lies between the easily discerned constellations Ursa Major and Leo

Leo Minor Mythology

It does not belong to the ancient list of 48 constellations drawn up by Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD, but was instead created by Johannes Hevelius in 1687.

Further Information

There is little to see for owners of small telescopes. There is only one star brighter than 4m and the brightest deep sky object one is NGC 3003, a galaxy with an apparent brightness of 11.7m and an angular size of 5.9 arc minutes.

Leo Minor Photographs

 

Taken on 2006-01-21, 1 views

 

Taken on 0000-00-00, 1 views