More on the Sickle of Leo: stars

Event Date: September 18th
Time: 6:00 AM


Brief

   Yesterday, I showed Regulus, the brightest star of Leo the Lion.  However, can you spot the asterism that it is part of before the Sun washes it out?  The Sickle, which I showed last spring and perhaps once during early Summer, looks like a backwards question mark, with Regulus marking the dot "." at the bottom.  We don't see the rest of the Lion yet--body and tail--with the Sun in the way of that eastern part of the constellation.  In about a month, we will see the Lion in its entirety, as the Sun moves further east-southeast on the celestial dome.  Here is Regulus labeled, with the stick-figure of Sickle, being the Lion's mane.

Detailed

   The Sickle is made up of five moderately-bright stars along with 1st-magnitude Regulus.  Algieba, labeled below, is slightly brighter than some of the others.  Below, I labeled each one.  While Algieba-- a fine double star--is magnitude 2.0, the others are in the high-2 to high 3 range of magnitude.  Regulus in comparison, is magnitude 1.3.  By forming the head--or mane--of The Lion, it makes it one of the most distinguishable asterisms in the sky after the two dippers.  When we see the entire Lion body in a few weeks, the mane-shape may make much more sense.  Try to visualize it, since any stars designated as the face of the lion are much to faint to make it out easily.

click on images to enlarge: courtesy of Starry Night Pro Plus, version 6.4.3, by Simulation Curriculum Corp.