Leo ‘The King Of Spring’ Means Wintertime Is Over: How To Spot Leo Above The Eastern Horizon Tuesday Night
Leo "The King of Spring" will grab center stage this week as it marks the end of the long winter season. Stargazers are now looking for tips on how to spot the dominant constellation of spring along the eastern horizon as Orion moves along the southwestern skies.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has the exclusive on how to look for Leo "The King of Spring" this Tuesday. Astronomers lead stargazers within a soup of stars to find Leo which is easily distinguishable since it looks like a backward question mark. The bottom part of the question mark is the star Regulus which is known to be the brightest. To the left of Regulus is a collection of stars that form the lion's headquarters and hairless tail.
Astronomers recommend checking out Leo "The King of Spring" Tuesday night because it is when the constellation is at its peak. On Tuesday it will be exactly 40 degrees above the eastern horizon at around an hour after sunset. First-time stargazers might find it hard to locate Leo and so astronomers suggest finding the stars that look like a bow connected to Big Dipper's handle. A line drawn downwards from these two bowls will take stargazers to Regulus.
Regulus is actually 79 light-years away from the sun and is around 3.8 times larger and 288 times more luminous than the Earth's sun, Space reported. Regulus is one of the four major stars that ruled over the heavens according to the ancient Persians. The brightest star of Leo "The King of Spring" is located directly along the line of the path of the Earth's movement around the sun. Above all, Leo is one of the 12 signs of the zodiac.
Least known among the stars of Leo "The King of Spring" is Algieba which appears as a faint star to the naked eye but is actually a two-star system. One part of Algieba is orange-red while the other one is greenish-yellow. These two components are huge and are 23 and 10 times larger than the sun. The brightest star and yet the second largest is Denebola and is the tip of Leo.
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