Prismtect › Constellations › Lepus
the Hare
Directly below Orion's feet, under Rigel, a small group of stars makes the crouching hare.
The hare is hiding at the hunter's feet, with Orion's dogs, Canis Major and Canis Minor, close by.
Lepus holds R Leporis, called Hind's Crimson Star, one of the reddest stars that can be seen with a small telescope.
The Greeks called it Lagoös, "hare".
The brightest star, Arneb, comes from the Arabic for "hare", which was also the Arabic name for the whole constellation.
Chinese astronomers saw part of a royal hunt here.
The Bororo people of Brazil see a huge caiman stretching across this part of the sky.
The Greeks called it Lagoös, "hare". Eratosthenes says Hermes put the hare in the sky because it is so fast. The poet Aratus pictured the Great Dog chasing it in an endless race: the dog rises close behind it and, as it sets, keeps its eyes on the setting hare. Hyginus tells a story with a moral. The island of Leros had no hares until a man brought in one pregnant female. Soon everyone was raising hares, until they overran the fields, ate the crops and left people starving. When the islanders had driven them out, they set the hare among the stars as a reminder that you can have too much of a good thing.
The brightest star, Arneb, comes from the Arabic for "hare", which was also the Arabic name for the whole constellation. The four main stars, a small four-sided shape, had other Arabic names. One was "the Throne of al-Jawza'", because Orion was seen as a figure called al-Jawza'. Another was al-Nihal, "the camels quenching their thirst".
Chinese astronomers saw part of a royal hunt here. Four stars in the north were Junjing, a well of drinking water for the army. The four main stars were Ce, a toilet, perhaps for those taking part in the yearly hunt, with two stars as a privacy screen beside it. Noblemen had a well of their own near Orion.
The Bororo people of Brazil see a huge caiman stretching across this part of the sky. Lepus is its head, Orion its body, and stars of Taurus and Auriga its tail. The caiman reflects how important these animals are in Amazonian life.
Free during the beta.
On Prismtect you write any sentence, a glass prism turns it into eight numbers, and a constellation is drawn in the sky for it, with a card to keep. Your sentence is not shown on the card.
Milky Way wallpapers in 4K
A moving wallpaper you can touch (Windows)