Lepus

Origin

Lepus, Latin for a hare, is a small constellation located just south of the celestial equator.

Bright Stars

Alpha Leporis, the brightest star of Lepus at magnitude 2.6.It means "hare" in Arabic.

Beta Leporis, a magnitude-2.8 star.

Gamma Leporis is a double star in binoculars. The primary is magnitude 3.6, and the secondary is magnitude 6.2. Delta Leporis is a magnitude-3.8 star. Epsilon Leporis is magnitude 3.2. Kappa Leporis is a double star and can be resolved through medium-aperture amateur telescopes. The primary is magnitude 4.4 and the secondary is magnitude 7.4.

Photo of the constellation Lepus produced by NOIRLab in collaboration with Eckhard Slawik, a German astrophotographer. The annotations are from a standardized set of 88 western IAU constellations and stick figures from Sky & Telescope. Please find here a non-annotated version of the image.

Credit: E. Slawik/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Zamani