Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, May 7th. Today the Sun will be up for 14 hours and 32 minutes, setting at 8:55, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:22. The Moon is new today, and won’t be visible.

High in the south-southeast at 10:30 p.m. is a tiny and faint constellation of Coma Berenices, or Berenice’s Hair. In it are lots of faint stars arrayed to look like several strands of hair to the naked eye. The whole group will fit in the field of a pair of binoculars, which will also show many more stars. The story behind it was that Berenice was a real queen of Egypt, whose husband, the Pharaoh Ptolemy III, was away at war. This was in the days when the Greeks ruled Egypt after Alexander had conquered it. She offered her golden tresses to the gods for the king’s safe return. The hair, was placed in a temple. However, the offering disappeared when the king returned. Ever since then, the constellation of Coma Berenices has been seen to commemorate the queen’s sacrifice.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT–4 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Do not confuse the Coma Berenices star cluster (Melotte 111 and Collinder 256) with the Coma Cluster (actually a supercluster of galaxies up to 300 million light years away) in the northern part of the constellation. The Coma Cluster contains upwards of 10,000 galaxies.