Lepus lies directly south of the great hunter, Orion, and so it is nicely suited for viewing in February evening skies. The mythology of Lepus has been lost, but it was known to the Greeks and  is commonly believed to be the prey of Orion. This begs the question why such a formidable hunter would bother with a rabbit?  He was a big game hunter and sweetheart to Diana, Goddess of the Hunt, twin sister of Apollo.  You think she's going to be impressed with "Hi honey, I'm home!.  Look, I shot a bunny!"

M-79 (NGC 1904) is a small globular cluster about 3.5 degrees SSW of Beta Leporis. In the same field, half a degree to the SSW of this cluster, is H-3752.  It's approximately 79LY in diameter and lies 43,000LY away.  Travelers to there are advised to pack a lunch for the trip.

Herschel 3752 is a nice triple star visible in small telescopes, 35' WSW of M79.  The stars are magnitude 5.5, 6.5 and 9. The brighter are yellow-orange and the dimmest is white.

R Lepus, "Hind's Crimson Star" A long period variable star with a period of roughly 430 days.  Hind originally described this as "an intense crimson, resembling a blood-drop on the background of the sky."  It's classified as an "N" or carbon star, and has range from about magnitudes 5.5 to 10.5.  It's last maximum was around Jul 9^th, 2001. 

gamma Lep A 3^rd magnitude main sequence star with a 6^th magnitude companion has an angular separation of 96".  The pair is approximately 29LY distant and their orbit is estimated to be 900AU in diameter. The color contrast of the pair is quite nice, being described as yellow and garnet.