Omega Leonis

Constellation of Leonis

Omega Leonis is a yellow star of main sequence variable of spectral class G1V^[1] located in the constellation of Leo. It is visible to the naked eye in the absence of light pollution, with an apparent magnitude of about 5.4, and is about 112 light years from Earth.^[2][3] The primary star is known to have a temperature of 5940k.^[4]

Because of its location close to ' ecliptic, it is often obscured by the Moon, and potentially from planets , usually the inner planets.

The star has a visual binary,^[5] consisting of two stars of magnitude +5.9 and +6.5 separated by 0.5 arc seconds; the orbital period of around the common center of mass is around 118 years,^[6] while the ' \orbital eccentricity is equal to 0.557.^[7] The masses of the two components, calculated by the method of dynamic parallax, were found to be equal to 1.65 M ☉ and 1.45 M ☉.^[8]

Omega Leonis is best known in popular culture, as the setting for the fictional planet Qo'noS, the homeworld of the fictional Klingons in the Star Trek television franchise.

References

1. Ω Leonis at Sinbad Database.
2. Ω Leonis at Sinbad Database.
3. T. J. J. See, Researches on the orbit of ω Leonis = Σ 1356 Astronomische Nachrichten Vol138, Issue 23, pages 373–378, 1895.
4. Jim Kaler, Omega Leo, (2013).
5. W. I. Hartkopf and B. D. Mason, Sixth Catalog of Orbits of Visual Binary Stars, (US Naval Observatory Double Star Catalog, 2006).
6. Patrick Moore, The Amateur Astronomer, Cambridge University Press, 1990, p. 221.
7. EL van Dessel, Orbital elements and removal of the nodal ambiguity for the visual binary ADS 7390 = ω Leo in Astronomy & Astrophysics Supplement Series, vol. 26, 1976, pp. 415-416.
8. EL van Dessel, Orbital elements and removal of the nodal ambiguity for the visual binary ADS 7390 = ω Leo in Astronomy & Astrophysics Supplement Series, vol. 26, 1976, pp. 415-416.