Leo Minor

Authors: Susanne M Hoffmann

---

Leo Minor star chart (IAU and Sky & Telescope magazine, Roger Sinnott & Rick Fienberg).

One of the 88 IAU constellations. The constellation was invented by Hevelius (1687).

Etymology and History

Origin of Constellation

Leo Minor depicted in Hevelius (1687).

Leo Minor described in Hevelius (1687).

This constellation is very small, a gap filler, so to speak, consisting only of stars of fourth magnitude at best. Only one of these stars is listed in the Almagest, namely among the stars outside the figure of the Great Bear (Ursa Major), itself not belonging to any constellation. The constellation was inserted into the gap between the Great Bear and Leo when telescopes were rapidly being built in ever larger forms in the 17th century. It was invented by the Gdańsk brewer and councillor Johannes Hevelius (1611-1687). He had built several large telescopes and made astronomical observations together with his wife. An extensive star catalogue was published by his wife after his death.

Although Hevelius had access to the Uranometria (1603) and was familiar with the nomenclature of stars introduced by Joh. Bayer, he did not consistently name the stars in his own fixed star register. He only wrote the Latin word ‘leader’ (praecipua) on the brightest star, which was later interpreted as a proper name by the Italian astronomer Piazzi.

A systematic naming of the stars was only undertaken about 150 years later by another astronomer: Francis Baily (1774–1844) assigned the stars in Leo Minor the usual letter designations in Johannes Bayer's nomenclature system (1603). However, he made a mistake, so that there is no ‘alpha’ star in Leo Minor, but the brightest star is called ‘beta’.

Transfer and Transformation of the Constellation

• 
  Leo Minor in Hevelius's defining map (1687)
• 
  Leo Minor and Lynx in Bode (1782, 1805)

References

• References (general)
• References (ancient Greco-Roman)
• References (medieval)