The Coma Star Cluster in Coma Berenices, designated Melotte 111 after its entry in the catalogue of deep sky objects by P. J. Melotte, is a small but nearby star cluster in our galaxy, containing about 40 brighter stars (magnitude 5 to 10) with a common proper motion. The Hipparcos satellite and infrared color-magnitude diagram fitting have been used to establish a distance to the cluster's center of ~86 pc. The distance established via the independent analyses agree, thereby making the cluster an important rung on the cosmic distance ladder. The open cluster is roughly twice as distant as the Hyades and covers an area of more than 7.5 degrees on the sky. The cluster is approximately 450 million years old. In the FOV of a good field glass most of its stars can be seen simultaneously. The brighter stars of the cluster make out a distinctive "V" shape as seen when Coma Berenices is rising.
It used to represent Leo's tail, but Ptolemy III, in around 240 BC, renamed it for the Egyptian queen Berenice's sacrifice of her hair in a legend.
Famous quotes containing the words coma, star and/or cluster:
“A coma that is a white, interesting country ...”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“It is the star to every wand’ring bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“the green hells of the sea
Where fallen skies and evil hues and eyeless creatures be;
On them the sea-valves cluster and the grey sea-forests curl,
Splashed with a splended sickness, the sickness of the pearl;”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)