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Jimmy Westlake

Jimmy Westlake's Celestial News column appears Tuesdays in the Steamboat Today.

Steamboat Springs — Just as sure as when the groundhog sees no shadow, when the stars of Leo the Lion appear in the eastern sky after the sun goes down, it's a sure sign that springtime is on its way. You can catch Leo leaping into the eastern sky beginning this month as soon as darkness falls. Look for a pattern of bright stars that forms the shape of a backward question mark, punctuated by a very bright blue star. Also known as "the Sickle," this pattern forms the head and mane of the King of the Beasts. The bright blue star is named Regulus, meaning "the Little King," and represents Leo's heart. Trailing behind the Sickle is a distinctive triangle of stars forming Leo's hind leg and foot.

An extra attraction this year is the famous ringed planet Saturn, which is passing through the stars of Leo. Saturn is somewhat brighter than Regulus and is a golden yellow color. You might also notice that Regulus twinkles, but Saturn does not. Any small telescope will reveal the surrealistic rings circling Saturn and maybe even two or three of Saturn's largest moons. This is a perfect time to observe Saturn because it is near its closest point to the Earth for 2008.

Regulus is the 21st brightest star in our night sky and is one of the fastest spinning stars known. A point on its equator zooms around at the dizzying speed of 700,000 miles per hour. This rapid rotation causes Regulus to flatten and bulge outward at its equator. Orbiting Regulus is a pair of dwarf stars, too faint to be seen with the unaided eye.

The second brightest star in the Sickle is Algieba, one of the most colorful binary stars in the heavens as seen through a telescope. What the unaided eye sees as a single yellowish star, a telescope reveals to be a pair of orange and golden suns very close together. The stars of Algieba take five centuries to complete a single orbit!

Leo's back foot is marked by a star named Denebola, which literally translates into "the Lion's Tail." Originally, the tuft of hair on the end of Leo's tail was marked by a nearby cluster of stars, but in the mid-16th century, his tail was amputated to create a new constellation called Coma Berenices, representing the golden hair of Queen Berenices. Look for it rising in the northeastern sky right behind Leo.

Leo the Lion represents one of the many mythological beasts that wound up on the losing end of a battle with the strong man Hercules. Legend tells us that Leo fell to Earth like a meteor and roamed the countryside terrorizing the peaceful inhabitants. Leo's hide was so tough that no spear or arrow could pierce it. Hercules managed to defeat the beast by strangling it with his bare hands. Then, he made a robe out of the lion's hide that protected him from spears and arrows. The legend doesn't explain how Hercules managed to remove a hide that no knife could cut.