Lepus

Lepus (abbreviation: Lep), the Hare, prey of Orion the Hunter, is a small but interesting southern constellation, located just south of Orion. Of the few stars making up a figure that looks like a smashed box kite, the brightest is only third magnitude. See below for details of the constellation's brightest stars and interesting deep sky objects.

Stars brighter than magnitude 4.0
star	vis mag	abs mag	spec type	distance (ly)	RA (h m s)	Dec (° ' ")
Alpha (Arneb)	2.58	-5.40	F0Ib	1,280	05 32 44	-17 49 20
Beta (Nihal)	2.81	-0.63	G5II	159	05 28 15	-20 45 35
Epsilon	3.19	-1.02	K4IIIv	227	05 05 28	-22 22 16
Mu	3.29	-0.47	B9IVpHgMn	184	05 12 56	-16 12 20
Zeta	3.55	1.88	A2Vn	70	05 46 57	-14 49 20
Gamma	3.59	3.82	F7V	29	05 44 28	-22 26 55
Eta	3.71	2.82	F1V	49	05 56 24	-14 10 04
Delta	3.76	1.07	G8IIIwkCN	112	05 51 19	-20 52 45

Other objects of interest
name	type of object	notes
Hind's Crimson Star	star	R Lep. See separate entry
NGC 2017	open cluster	Binoculars or a small telescope reveal five stars, ranging from sixth to tenth magnitude; of these, two are binaries that can be split by a telescope of 15 cm aperture. Magnitude 6.4; diameter 15'; RA 05h 39.4m, Dec -17° 51'
M79 (NGC 1904)	globular cluster	A compact, interesting object for small telescopes, lying close to Herschel 3752. Magnitude 9.9; diameter 8.7'; RA 05h 24.5m, Dec -24° 33'