Leo Minor

Leo Minoriden

• Big Dipper
• Lynx
• (Cancer)
• Lion

The Little Lion (Latin: Leo Minor ) is a constellation of the northern sky.

Description

The little lion is an inconspicuous constellation of the northern fixed stars. He sits down (depending on the star map ) of two or three stars together. Only one is brighter than the fourth magnitude.

One can find the constellation north of the distinctive " large " Lion (Leo).

History

The constellation was introduced in 1687 by the Gdańsk astronomer Johannes Hevelius. Only the second brightest star, β Leonis Minoris, was designated by a Greek letter.

Celestial objects

Stars

The brightest star in the Little Lion carries the Flamsteed designation 46 Leonis Minoris. There is a 98 light-years distant star of spectral type K0 III. He is sometimes referred to as Praecipua, Latin for " head ".

β Leonis Minoris is a 200 light-years distant, yellowish shining star of spectral type G9 III.

Variable Stars

R Leonis Minoris is a variable star of type Mira, whose brightness changes greatly over a period of 372 days. At the maximum, it can be easily seen with a prism binoculars. While the minimum brightness drops to the 13 size class, so you need an average telescope for observation.

Messier and NGC objects

The Little Lion are the galaxies NGC 3003 and NGC 3344th