I sure hope you had a chance to see at least some of the solar eclipse last Monday. Where it was visible and clouds didn’t get in the way, it was quite the show! Unfortunately, the next total solar eclipse in the lower 48 states won’t be until 2045, but if you don’t mind a long plane ride, there’ll be a total solar eclipse in Northern Alaska on March 30, 2033.

Nighttime stargazing is still going strong, though. Since last December, the mighty constellation Orion the Hunter has dominated the southern half of the evening sky, but the times are a-changin’. Another bright and classic constellation, Leo the Lion, is perched high in the southeast evening sky, pushing Orion and his posse of other bright winter stars and constellations toward the western horizon. You can see this push going on from night to night this month. Leo has to push a little harder this year because the mighty planet Jupiter is residing in the same neighborhood of the sky as Orion this spring. Our Earth’s orbit around the sun is making this all happen. As our world continues its annual journey around our home star, we’re turning away from the direction of space where Orion and the other winter constellations reside and toward the stars in and around Leo.

Leo, while not as flamboyant as Orion, is still a constellation of distinction, one of the brighter ones in the night sky. Most people perceive it as a two-part constellation. The right side forms an easily recognizable backward question mark with the moderately bright star Regulus, the brightest star of Leo, marking the bottom dot of the query mark. It doesn’t take much imagination to see how the sickle of stars outlines the profile of a lion’s head, with Regulus marking the heart of the giant heavenly feline. To the left of the lion’s bust is a triangle of moderately bright stars that supposedly outline the lion’s derriere and tail, adding a touch of whimsy to this celestial masterpiece.

Regulus, Leo’s brightest star, may not be among the night sky’s most luminous stars, but its astronomical properties are nothing short of awe-inspiring. Regulus, a Latin name that translates to “little king” or “the prince,” is a star of considerable size. It’s more than four times the diameter of our nearly million-mile-wide sun, and its interior nuclear fusion furnace is much more active than our sun. The outer layer of Regulus has a temperature of more than 20,000 degrees F, about twice as hot as our sun. This intense heat causes it to emit more than 300 times as much light as our home star. Regulus would be much more dazzling in our sky if it were closer, but it’s nearly 80 light years away, with just one light year equaling nearly 6 trillion miles. The bright star Regulus is actually part of a closely knit, four-star system, with the other three stars being much smaller. Denebola, Leo’s second-brightest star, is found at the tail of the king of the celestial jungle, adding to the constellation’s celestial allure.

In most cultures, Leo is depicted as a lion. Some of the earliest records of people making up constellation pictures come from ancient Sumerian culture in present-day Iraq. Sketches of Leo the Lion have shown up in caves in that area. In Greek and Roman mythology, Leo the Lion was a huge, legendary beast that terrorized the countryside, annihilating and devouring anything in its path. Many tried to bring down the ferocious giant lion and wound up in its digestive system instead, but the mighty hero Hercules was the end of the line for Leo. Hercules is depicted in a nearby summer constellation that I’ll feature in the coming weeks. The tale of Hercules, the hero, is quite a story for another day.

Other cultures have many different interpretations of the group of stars we see as Leo the Lion. Egyptians see Leo as their famous Sphinx, a strange mythological figure of a half-recumbent lion with a human head. The constellation Egyptians saw as the Sphinx was critical to them because, in ancient times, when the sun passed into the stars of the Sphinx, that was the seasonal sign of summer that the life-giving Nile River was about to go into its annual flood. In Peru, the stars of Leo are supposed to picture a puma pouncing on its prey. In China, Leo is a horse in the Chinese zodiac. Christian cultures in the Middle Ages saw Leo the Lion as a reminder of the Biblical story of the prophet Daniel being thrown into a den of lions for his beliefs.

Enjoy the great celestial feline of the spring evening sky!

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and retired broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and adventurepublications.net. Mike is available for private star parties. You can contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.