“Leo the Lion Chases Orion out of Springtime Skies”

Scheduled air date: 2006 Mar 20-26

Now that spring is here, Orion the Hunter and other winter constellations can be seen dropping toward the western horizon and being replaced by Leo the Lion and other spring constellations!
(Shown about 90 minutes after sunset this week for mid-Northern latitudes.)

Denebola—the bright star at the tail end of the constellation Leo—is about twice the size of our own Sun. Regulus—the brightest star in Leo—is about four times bigger than our Sun, and twice as distant as Denebola. Regulus was recently discovered to have a diameter about 1/3 larger at its equator than at its poles.

If you wish to view illustrations for other episodes, please see our Star Gazer Illustrated directory.

Illustrations on this page were created using TheSky6 Astronomy Software, an advanced desktop planetarium program designed for Windows. Copyright © 1999-2006 by Software Bisque, Inc.