Home > Constellations, Ephemeris Program, Observing, Uncategorized > Ephemeris: 03/31/2025 – Finding Leo, the celestial lion

Ephemeris: 03/31/2025 – Finding Leo, the celestial lion

March 31, 2025

This is Ephemeris for Monday, March 31st. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 44 minutes, setting at 8:09, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:23. The Moon, 2 days past new, will set at 11:39 this evening.

At 10 p.m. the spring constellation of Leo the lion will be high in the south-southeast. It can be found by locating the Big Dipper high in the northeast and imagining that a hole were drilled in the bowl to let the water leak out. It would drip on the back of this giant cat. The Lion is standing or lying facing westward. His head and mane are seen in the stars as a backwards question mark. This group of stars is also called the sickle. The bright star Regulus is at the bottom, the dot at the bottom of the question mark. A triangle of stars, to the left of Regulus, is the lion’s haunches. Leo contains some nice galaxies visible in moderate sized telescopes. The stars in Leo’s part of the sky are fewer than those in the winter sky.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT – 4 hours). Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

Finding the constellation of Leo the lion by using the Big Dipper. Starting nearly overhead we find the Big Dipper in the constellation Ursa Major. Using the bowl of the dipper, and make believe that somebody drilled a hole through the bottom to let the water fall out. It will fall on the back of Leo, which is high in the south-southeastern sky. The little cross in the second image is the zenith. This is for 10:00 PM on March 30th. Created using my LookingUp app, LibreOffice Draw and GIMP.
The galaxies in the constellation of Leo
The galaxies in the constellation of Leo . The three galaxies near the hind end of Leo: M 65, M 66 and NGC 3628, are collectively known as the Leo Triplet. There are three other Messier galaxies below center of Leo and another Galaxy, NGC 2309 in front of the face of Leo. All these galaxies are about 31 to 35 million light years away.
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