COSMOS / CONSTELLATIONS / LMI
Leo Minor (Lesser Lion)
The Lesser Lion. IAU abbreviation LMi. One of the seven constellations introduced by Johannes Hevelius and published in his star atlas of 1690.
STAR CHART
KEY FACTS
- IAU abbreviation
- LMi
- Latin name / genitive
- Leo Minor / Leonis Minoris
- Position
- Right ascension ≈ 10 h 20 m; declination +23° to +41°
- Visibility from Türkiye
- Visible in full from anywhere in Türkiye. When it crosses the meridian its centre stands about 82° above the horizon from Ankara.
- Best time to observe
- Best placed at 21:00 Türkiye time around 24 April.
- Number of stars
- 38 stars brighter than magnitude 6.5 in the catalogue; 6 brighter than 5 and 1 brighter than 4.
INTERACTIVE LAB
Where is Leo Minor tonight?
The lab opens for Ankara on today’s date. Drag the time slider through the night; the “Best night” button jumps to the date when the constellation is highest at 21:00 (around 24 April). Change the city to compare the view from elsewhere in Türkiye and around the world.
MYTH, HISTORY AND OBSERVING
A small, faint constellation that Hevelius placed in 1687 in the gap between Leo and Ursa Major. Its only star with a Bayer letter is Beta Leonis Minoris; no star was ever given the letter Alpha. Its brightest star, Praecipua, is only magnitude 3.8.
BRIGHTEST STARS
| Star | Magnitude | Distance (light-years) | Spectral type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Praecipua | 3.79 | 95 | K0III-IV |
| β LMi | 4.20 | 154 | G8III-IV |
| 21 LMi | 4.49 | 92 | A7V |
| 10 LMi | 4.54 | 185 | G8III |
| 37 LMi | 4.68 | 578 | G0II |
| 30 LMi | 4.72 | 233 | F0V |
| 41 LMi | 5.08 | 229 | A3Vn |
| 19 LMi | 5.11 | 92 | F6Vs |
Magnitude: apparent brightness; the smaller the number, the brighter the star. Distances derive from parallax measurements and are uncertain for distant stars. Source: HYG v4.1 star catalogue (CC BY-SA 4.0).
SOURCES
Position, visibility and best observing time were computed approximately for this page from the catalogue stars (Ankara, 39.9° N). The 88 constellations were adopted by the IAU in 1922; their boundaries were drawn by Eugène Delporte in 1930.