Constellation Guide LEO

Leo - The Lion



Pronounced "Lee - Oh"



Where to find the constellation









Constellation Chart









Leo is a quite large and prominent Zodiac constellation which sweeps across the South of the sky throughout the early part of the year.

The 'Lion' shape is quite easy to imagine when looking at the pattern ofstars, and is home to many, many galaxies, including 5 Messier objects, and several ngc-classified galaxies, as well as a fairly bright, and moderately tight double star, and a dimmer, MUCH tighter example that will really test your optics.





M65 and M66 are two galaxies of similar brightness (M66 is the slightly brighter, and larger of the two)

Less than 20 arcminutes apart - mag 9.3 and 8.9 respectively - they make an equilateral triangle with a dimmer (mag 9.5) elongated galaxy - ngc3628 - known collectively as the Leo triplet.

The three galaxies can be seen together in the same widefield view if you have a good sky and 4" aperture or more.



M65





M66





Leo triplet







Similar to M65 and M66 - M95 and M96 (mag 9.7 and mag 9.3 respectively) are two more galaxies that reside close enough to each other to be seen in the same field of view. However, also nearby is M105, an 9th magnitude elliptical galaxy, which has yet another, dimmer galaxy (ngc3384) nestled close by.

All 4 can be seen together if you have at least a 2° field of view - and in fact, there is one more, even dimmer galaxy near M105 and ngc3384 - but you will need plenty of aperture to see the 5th member of this little grouping.



M95





M96





M105













As well as those mentioned so far - there are 4 more sub 10th magnitude galaxies in Leo...

NGCs... 2903, 3521, 3607, 3626

(see the chart of Leo - further up)





ALGIEBA

Double star - mag 2.5 and 3.5 - both yellow - 4.4 arcseconds separation



Iota Leonis

VERY tight double star - only 1.7 arcsec separation - both elements white, magnitudes 4 and 7.

The very tight separation, and big difference in brightness, make this an extremely difficult double to split.





Leo NGC galaxiess (with magnitudes) - from my own "1200 Northern NGCs" list

For those with 'GoTo' or a good chart.

2903 - Gal - 9

3193 - Gal - 10.9

3227 - Gal - 10.3

3351 - Gal - 9.7 (M95)

3368 - Gal - 9.3 (M96)

3377 - Gal - 10.4

3379 - Gal - 9.3 (M105)

3384 - Gal - 9.9

3489 - Gal - 10.2

3507 - Gal - 10.9

3521 - Gal - 9

3593 - Gal - 10.9

3607 - Gal - 9.9

3608 - Gal - 10.8

3623 - Gal - 9.3 (M65)

3626 - Gal - 11 (C40)

3627 - Gal - 8.9 (M66)

3628 - Gal - 9.5

3640 - Gal - 10.3

3810 - Gal - 10.6

There are many more galaxies in Leo (73 in my 1200 NGCs list)

I've limited this to those brighter than mag 11 - to keep the size of the list down.

Very nicely laid out

WOW! i know the big dipper, cassiopia, orion and my next constellation is leo! thank you

This is really great - even for those of us without telescopes!

Nice guide. As a beginner, I will definitely use it.

Have always thought these guides looked a bit daunting but I think I'll try to make more sense of them. I massively under-estimated how much I'd have to learn before embarking on my new hobby. Over the past few weeks I've learnt so much about scopes, eyepieces, astro imaging and that it was never this cloudy before I bought my telescope!

Some of you guys must live and breath this stuff Perhaps I'll catch you up someday... Maybe...

Suziegr wrote:

Have always thought these guides looked a bit daunting but I think I'll try to make more sense of them. I massively under-estimated how much I'd have to learn before embarking on my new hobby. Over the past few weeks I've learnt so much about scopes, eyepieces, astro imaging and that it was never this cloudy before I bought my telescope!

Some of you guys must live and breath this stuff Perhaps I'll catch you up someday... Maybe...

I'm in the same situation as you

okeeft01 wrote:

Suziegr wrote:

Have always thought these guides looked a bit daunting but I think I'll try to make more sense of them. I massively under-estimated how much I'd have to learn before embarking on my new hobby. Over the past few weeks I've learnt so much about scopes, eyepieces, astro imaging and that it was never this cloudy before I bought my telescope!

Some of you guys must live and breath this stuff Perhaps I'll catch you up someday... Maybe...

I'm in the same situation as you

Ha! It's good to know I'm not alone!

Have tried not to get too bogged down with excess info and am trying to apply every I learn as I learn it but the weather isn't helping much. I'm quite adept at balancing my scope now though as that's one things I CAN do on cloudy nights

Indeed there is a wealth of information to take in! Learning the night sky is NOT an overnight job. Set yourself a target - say one constellation per observing session using these charts. You'll learn the main and interesting constellations in a respectable amount of time. Added to which, don't forget that some of the 88 constellations never rise above the horizon for UK & US observers - and others are so faint and dull, they just ain't worth learning about!