Coma Berenices is a faint northern constellation which is high in the sky during the spring for northern observers. It is located between Bootes, Ursa Major, and Leo.
History and Mythology
Coma Berenices originates from the time when Ptolemy III Euergetes ruled Egypt with his queen Berenice II, daughter of Magas, king of Cyrene. Ptolemy set out on a dangerous military expedition against the Assyrians, who had murdered his sister. Berenice, his wife, was proud of her beautiful hair. She vowed to sacrifice it if Egypt's war with the Assyrians was successful. Berenice had her hair cut when her husband returned safe from the wars. She placed her hair in the temple of Aphrodite. That night the hair disappeared, which angered the king and queen. The court astronomer, Conon, announced that the hair had achieved such favor with the goddess Aphrodite that, rather than keep it in the temple, she had placed the hair in the sky for everyone to see.
Notable Objects
Many of the stars in Coma Berenices are part of a loose, nearby open star cluster known as Melotte 111. Most are of 5th and 6th magnitude, and many more can be seen with binoculars.
There are several bright galaxies in Coma Bernices, which contains the Coma Cluster of Galaxies. This is a concentrated grouping of over 1,000 galaxies that lie about 320 million light-years away.
M 64 is a 9th magnitude spiral galaxy with an enormous dust patch near its core that can be seen even in small backyard telescopes. This dark patch gives it its nickname, the "black eye" galaxy.
Other notable Messier galaxies in Coma Berenices include M 85, a 9th magnitude lenticular galaxy; M 88, a 10th-magnitude spiral; M 91, a 10th-magnitude barred spiral; M 98, a 10th-magnitude edge-on spiral; M 99, the Coma Pinwheel Galaxy, a 10th-magnitude spiral; M 100, a 9th-magnitude spiral.
The most prominent of the non-Messier galaxies in Coma Berenices is the famous edge-on spiral NGC 4565, also called the needle galaxy. It has a large dust lane that cuts across the nucleus of the galaxy. The dust lane is easily seen in an 8 inch telescope.
For larger telescopes, NGC 4559 and NGC 4725 are two other spiral galaxies worth investigating.
NGC 4192 is another large spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices, seen almost edge on. M 53 is the brightest globular cluster in Coma Berenices. It can be seen nicely with a 10-inch telescope.