Observations: This photo is of the constellation Leo, also known as the Lion. This picture was actually taken on March 1, which was Astronomy Night, but because I wanted to take more time on each one and not take all this newly found constellations and spill out the information in one day, I decided to portion it out a bit.
Now after reading up on this constellation, using the Greek mythology of the constellation, I found that the story of Leo was quite short so I looked into it a little more. So the story goes: Once there was a lion who lived near a town called Nemea which was south-west of Corinth. There the lion lived in a 2-mouthed cave where it would bring the local citizens to eat them. Due to this recurring event, the people there actually became scarce. It happened to be that facing the lion would be Hercules' first of his 12 trials in which he would have to find and kill the beast. Finding the animal, Hercules tried to strike it down with arrows but to his disappointment, he was to find that the lion impenetrable skin as the arrows simply bounced off it. Quite agitated, Hercules took up his mighty club and ran after the beast, scaring it into its cave. Blocking one of the cave's entrances, Hercules went through the other opening and struck the lion with the club and then choked the beast to death. Having to prove his victory, Hercules had to cut off the pelt of the lion by using its own claws which he wore as a coat. The end.
Well, why is the lion placed up in the sky? Well, it is said that the Greek goddess Hera was the basically the godmother of all the great monsters including the lion's. The animal was nursed by Hera as well as by Selene, the Moon goddess, as child. Angry at Zeus, Hera sent the Lion to live in the town Nemea where there was a shrine for Zeus. This meant that if anyone wanted to worship Zeus, they would have to get through the invincible lion. After the death of the lion, Hera pitied it and allowed it to live with the other stars.
I would like to add one more thing about the picture. This is not the complete constellation of the lion. This is simply due to the trees being in the way of the last stars. But you can probably see the lion laying down, otherwise, you can point this constellation out in the sky by looking for a backwards question mark somewhat in between the constellations Gemini and Ursa Major.
No comments:
Post a Comment