Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Tuesday, April 17th.  The sun rises at 6:54.  It’ll be up for 13 hours and 36 minutes, setting at 8:30.   The moon, half way from last quarter to new, will rise at 5:23 tomorrow morning.

Looking to the southeast these nights can be found the dim constellation of Coma Berenices, or Berenice’s hair.  It’s located about half way from the horizon to the zenith.  It’s best seen on a moonless night as a sprinkling of faint stars that look like strands of hair.  It is a star cluster some 270 light years away, the second closest star cluster to the earth, the closest being the Hyades the marks the face of Taurus the bull, at about 153 light years, which is below, left of Venus tonight in the west.  Coma Berenices is located at an odd spot for an open or galactic star cluster.  It’s at the pole of the milky way, as far from the milky band as you can get.  Most galactic star clusters are close or in that band.  However due to its closeness Coma Berenices is abreast of us. as we orbit the center of the Milky Way.

* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Coma Berenices via Stellarium

Only one star of the three denote the constellation is part of the Coma Berenices star cluster, which appears to trail from the top star.