Where is Leo?? You know, the sunsign???

Question

My friend wanted to find Leo, cause it's his sun sign. Since I'm the one addicted to astrology & astronomy, I decided to show him as a birthbay gift. Help, pls???

Answer 1

Well I'm Leo, I'm in Michigan, but constellations have no locations as they are composed of stars that are in very different locations and only in the same general direction from where we are.  I am very ammused by the people that say the aliens are from some constellation.

Answer 2

Currently, Leo is setting during twilight, and is not really easy to see. You'll have to wait a few months, at which point it will be up in the sky before dawn.

If you want to give your friend a good present, advise him not to put any stock in that astrology nonsense. It's a bunch of bunk, and not worth his time.

Answer 3

Just to follow on from Raymond...

In fact you should not be able to see your sun sign on your birthday.

The point is that the Zodiac constellations mark out the region on the sky that the sun travels thru as perceived from earth over the course of a year. You sun sign is supposed to be where the sun is when you were born. SO if the stars are behind the sun, they should rise and set in daylight and not be seen.

However, because of precession, the sun is no longer in your sun sign constellation when you were born (see Raymond's answer for details); so it should be visible but only close to sunset or sunrise!

Answer 4

I would say that start looking in the morning sky just before sunrise in October or November, depending on where you are. Leo is a pretty easy constellation to find. Its shape really does suggest a crouching lion and it does have some bright and fairly bright stars. The easiest way to find it is to look for a backwards question mark to the northeast of Orion. That's the head of the lion. There is one bright star, Regulus. To the east, there's another, Denebola. That's the tail of the lion and it's pretty bright, too. That name means "tail of the lion" while Regulus means "little king".

Answer 5

A "house" is a portion of the zodiac that measures 30 degrees (regardless of the actual width of the constellation that gave it its name) and represents 1/12 of a year (a month).  These were set about two thousand years ago, when the "First point of Aries" (the name given to the Spring equinox position) was actually the first point of the constellation Aries (the point where the Sun actually entered the constellation Aries).

For one month after the Spring Equinox (in March), the Sun would be in the constellation Aries.

The actual constellations are wider or narrower than 30 degrees and that would have made for very irregular months.  That is why "houses" were invented.

Unfortunately, astrology has not kept the houses lined up with the constellations.  The drift is due to precession, an effect that was known to the classical Greek astronomers around 2800 years ago.

So: according to astrology, the Sun enters the house of Leo around July 23 and leaves it around August 22.

Astronomy knows that at these dates, the Sun really is:

July 23: western part of Cancer (having entered it just a few days before, on July 20)

August 10: enters Leo.

August 22: near the front legs of Leo (near the star Regulus).

September 3: skims the north-east corner of Sextans (but remains in Leo).

September 16: Leaves Leo to enter Virgo.

Therefore, the "house" of Leo is actually the whole of Cancer (almost) and the front portion of the constellation Leo (almost up to the star Regulus).

This means that none of the major stars in Leo are included in astrology's "house of Leo".

Answer 6

When the time is right (as Arkalius indicated) identify the arc in the sky that the sun travels. This is called the ecliptic and the zodiac lies along it also. It will be pretty late for a birthday gift though perhaps a Christmas or Hanukkah present? Or you could make him a gift certificate?

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/080530-n...

If you enter "Leo" in the search box of this same site you will find lots of good info on identifying it.

Here's a link to the winter sky, I hope you're still into it by then. http://www.space.com/spacewatch/071228-n...