What is "leo minor"

Leo \Le"o\ (l[=e]"[=o]), n. [L. See Lion.] (Astron.)

1. The Lion, the fifth sign of the zodiac, marked thus [[Leo]] in almanacs.

2. A northern constellation east of Cancer, containing the bright star Regulus at the end of the handle of the Sickle.

   Leo Minor, a small constellation between Leo and the Great Bear.

Leo Minor is a small and faint constellation in the northern celestial hemisphere. Its name is Latin for "the smaller lion", in contrast to Leo, the larger lion. It lies between the larger and more recognizable Ursa Major to the north and Leo to the south. Leo Minor was not regarded as a separate constellation by classical astronomers; it was designated by Johannes Hevelius in 1687.

There are 37 stars brighter than apparent magnitude 6.5 in the constellation; three are brighter than magnitude 4.5. 46 Leonis Minoris, an orange giant of magnitude 3.8, is located some 95 light-years from Earth. At magnitude 4.4, Beta Leonis Minoris is the second brightest star and the only one in the constellation with a Bayer designation. It is a binary star, the brighter component of which is an orange giant and the fainter a yellow-white main sequence star. The third brightest star is 21 Leonis Minoris, a rapidly rotating white main-sequence star of average magnitude 4.5. The constellation also includes two stars with planetary systems, two pairs of interacting galaxies, and the unique deep-sky object Hanny's Voorwerp.

The modern constellation Leo Minor lies across one of the quadrants symbolized by the The Vermillion Bird of the South (南方朱雀, Nán Fāng Zhū Què), and Three Enclosures (三垣, Sān Yuán), that divide the sky in traditional Chinese uranography.

The name of the western constellation in modern Chinese is 小獅座 (xiǎo shī zuò), meaning "the small lion constellation".