Observing the Constellation Lepus
The Stars and Globular Cluster of the Hare
The constellation of Lepus the Hare is best seen on winter evenings and contains a globular cluster that may not belong to our Milky Way Galaxy.
Lepus the Hare is a constellation known since ancient times. This rabbit was subject to the Hunter Orion and is therefore positioned near him in the sky.
Finding the Constellation Lepus
Lepus is located close to the horizon in winter skies in the Northern Hemisphere. He can be found under the feet of Orion the Hunter and beside Orion's hunting dog, Canis Major. Lepus will move from the southeast to the southwest over the course of each winter night and during the winter season, never rising very far above the southern horizon.
The Stars of Lepus the Hare
The 2nd and 3rd magnitude stars of Lepus can be described as a pinwheel shape or perhaps the form of a splayed rabbit, with its limbs radiating outward from its body. The brightest star in this pinwheel is the star at the center, Alpha Leporis. Also known as Arneb, Alpha Leporis is magnitude 2.58 and shines from a great distance of 1,284 light-years. The next brightest star in Lepus is three degrees south of Alpha. Beta Leporis, or Nihal, is magnitude 2.81 and lies at a distance almost 10 times closer than Alpha, at 160 light-years. There are no other named stars in Lepus.
Lepus's Globular Cluster
Few well-known deep-sky targets are found in Lepus. The one exception is the Messier object M79. M79 is not too hard to find by using the stars Alpha and Beta. Draw a line from Alpha to Beta (which will be about three degrees in length and then continue the line straight (south) for four degrees until you come upon the 8th magnitude globular. M79 lies about 40,000 light-years away from Earth but 60,000 light-years away from the galactic center.
Its location is unusual for a globular cluster. Most globular cluster's are closer to the galaxy's core than we are, orbiting the general bulk at its center. But M79 is farther away, on the outskirts of the galaxy. This discovery leads scientists to believe it is actually an extragalactic cluster.
The globular cluster is believed to belong to a small neighbor of the Milky Way called the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy. This dwarf galaxy, in the neighboring constellation of Canis Major, was only found in 2003. At 25,000 light-years from us and 42,000 light-years from the Milky Way's center, the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy is now the closest galaxy known in our Local Group.
This galaxy and M79 will probably not survive their close encounter with the massive Milky Way and they will be subsumed into our massive collection of stars.
