Constellations

The Deep Photographic Guide to the
Constellations

The constellation of the month
JANUARY

Lepus

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Names:

Latin: Lepus (Lep)
English: Hare Spanish: Libre
German: Hase French: Lièvre

The quite faint constellation of Lepus, the hare, is centered in the above photography (see lines).

In mid of January the above field culminates at about 10pm local time. The declination of Lepus ranges from -27 to -11 degrees. It can be found directly south of prominent Orion. You can see the southern part of Orion with bright Rigel and the Orion Nebula M42/43 in the upper part of the image. On the left hand side is Canis Major with the bright star Sirius. The brightest star of Lepus, Arneb, is 2.7 mag and visible right in the center of the above field.

With the exception of the globular star cluster M 79 Lepus is quite poor in brighter Deep-Sky-Objects (despite of the close path of the milky way through Canis Major).

© all photographs taken by Till Credner and Sven Kohle