Focus On: (68) Leto

Basics

Class: S-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 4.64 years
Discovered: 30th April 1861, 01:04 UTC, from Düsseldorf, Germany, by Robert Luther
Notes: Leto has an estimated cross-sectional size of 123km and a rotation period of 14.8 hours.
Events at time of discovery:

• April 12 – The American Civil War begins.
• April 15 – Birth of Bliss Carman, Canadian poet
• May 7 – Birth of Rabindranath Tagore, poet, novelist, dramatist, essayist, story-writer, composer, painter, philosopher, social reformer, educationist, linguist, grammarian, and Nobel Prize in Literature laureate

---

Naming information

Name origin: Greek goddess of motherhood.
Mythology: Leto was one of the Titanides, a bride of Zeus, and the mother of the twins Artemis and Apollo. Alongside her children, she was a protectress of the young. Her name and iconography suggest she also represented modesty and demure womanhood. The exact meaning of her name is uncertain. Some connect it with the word lethô, to move unseen, suggestive of modesty; others derive it from the Lycian word for woman, lada.

Marble relief featuring Leto with Zeus and their children, 420-410 BC, held at the Archaeological Museum of Brauron in Greece. Photo by Ophelia2.

---

Astrological data

Discovery degree: 3+ Scorpio
Discovery Sabian: A Youth Carries a Lighted Candle in a Devotional Ritual
Discovery nodal signature: Taurus–Scorpio
Estimated orbital resonances: Venus 2:15, Earth 3:14, Mars 5:11, Ceres 1:1, Jupiter 18:7, Saturn 19:3, Chiron 11:1, Uranus 18:1
Discovery chart details: Disseminating phase chart with Pholus rising, Vesta descending and Pallas-Chariklo on IC. The Sun was conjunct Pluto; the Moon square Mercury and sqq Saturn. Pallas, Chariklo and Chiron all made hard aspects to the Nodes. Lots of interaspects in this chart.

---

Summary

May relate to devotion and piety, appreciation of beauty, healing and growth, good sense and wisdom, unanticipated strength and lasting effects.

---

Discovery chart for (68) Leto: 30th April 1861, 01:04 UTC, Düsseldorf, Germany.