Coma Berenices

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Map created in Guide 7.0 with the figure outline based on Johannes Hevelius' Uranographia (1690). Click on the object's name to access its image or click on the name of adjacent constellation to see its map.

Coma Berenices represents hair of Queen Berenice, wife of egyptian King Ptolemy Eurygetes. Sacrificed as a thanksgiving gift to Aphrodite, the amber locks were placed in the skies by Zeus as the loose cluster catalogued now as Melotte 111.

While Coma is chock-full of galaxies, it is the pair of contrasting globulars, M53 and NGC5053, which arguably presents the most captivating telescopic view. Virgo Galaxy Cluster occupies Coma's southern border.

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© Jan Wisniewski