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A lion cub accompanying Leo, introduced by
the Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius in 1687. He formed it
from faint stars between Ursa Major and Leo that were not
previously part of any constellation. The brightest stars of
Leo Minor are of only fourth magnitude and there are no legends
associated with it.
Leo Minor, the lion cub, lies immediately above the head of Leo itself. From the Uranographia of Johann Bode. For Hevelius’s original depiction, see here.
Curiously, Leo Minor has no star labelled
Alpha, although there is a Beta Leonis Minoris. This seems to
have resulted from an oversight on the part of the 19th-century
English astronomer Francis Baily. Hevelius did not label the
stars in any of his newly formed constellations, so 150 years
later Baily did it for him. In his British
Association Catalogue of 1845,
Baily assigned the letter Beta to the second-brightest star in
Leo Minor, but left the brightest star (46 Leonis Minoris)
unlettered by mistake.
There is further confusion, too. In his
book Star Names, Their Lore and
Meaning, R. H. Allen says that
Hevelius described the brightest star in Leo Minor as
Praecipua, meaning ‘chief’, which was later used as
a star name by Piazzi in his Palermo
Catalogue. However, I am unable to
find any such mention of “Praecipua” in
Hevelius’s catalogue. What’s more, the American
historian Morton Wagman has pointed out to me that the star
which Piazzi named Praecipua was not, in fact, the brightest.
In his Palermo Catalogue of 1814, Piazzi gave the name to 37 LMi,
having wrongly assessed it as brighter than 46 LMi. Allen says
that Piazzi gave the name Praecipua to 46 LMi, but he is wrong.
© Ian Ridpath. All rights reserved
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