Our feature constellation for March is Coma Berenices.
The constellation (literally, Berenice's Hair) gets its name from Queen Berenice II of Egypt, the wife of King Ptolemy III. The king sought to avenge the death of his sister by the Syrians, and undertook a daring raid. Queen Berenice promised the Goddess Aphrodite that she would cut off her beautiful long hair if her husband returned safely. He did, and she had her hair cut and placed it in Aphrodite's temple. By the next morning, however, the hair had disappeared. The court astronomer, Conon, proclaimed that the offering had so pleased the goddess, that she had placed it in the sky.
When you look at Coma Berenices, you are looking almost exactly straight 'up' through the thinnest portion of the galactic disk. Surprisingly, there are a fair number of 'local' targets within this constellation including three globular clusters and a bright large open cluster. There are also numerous galaxies to view.
Mel 111 - Also known as the Coma Berenices Cluster, Mel (for Melotte) 111 is a large open cluster that spans around 5 degrees toward the NW corner of the constellation. It contains numerous brighter stars (to mag. 5) and makes a fine binocular target.
Double Globular Clusters, M53 and NGC 5053 (SDSS image on left) - Separated by less than 1 degree are two globular clusters, both of which are about 50,000 ly from Earth. M53 is brighter at Mag 8.5 with NGC 5053 somewhat smaller and dimmer at Mag 9.5. Low power and a scope of at least 4 inches is needed to view them simultaneously.
NGC 4147 - An even dimmer (mag. 10.5) globular cluster can be seen toward the SW corner of the constellation. It lies roughly equidistant from our Sun and the galactic center (about 60,000 ly from each).
M64, The Black Eye Galaxy (SDSS image at right) - This bright galaxy is relatively close at a distance of around 20 million light years. It gets its name from a prominent dark dust lane.
NGC 4565 (The Needle Galaxy) - John Dobson proclaimed this to be his favorite deep sky object, and it's easy to see why. The edge on galaxy shines brightly despite its distance of over 30 million light years. If you're doing the Caldwell list, you can check off C38.
A Plethora of Virgo-Coma Galaxies - The age of dinosaurs (i.e. the Cretaceous period) had just ended when the light from these galaxies began their journey toward your eyepiece or camera. There are several galaxies to enjoy including Messier objects 85, 88, 91, 98, 99 and 100, and Caldwell objects C35, and C36 (NGCs 4889 and 4559, respectively). This region of the sky is packed with an assortment of galaxies - all are roughly 60 million light years distant. The image on the left shows three of this month's targets within a field of view of only around 2.5 degrees. To gain an appreciation for the sheer number of galaxies within this galaxy cluster, look here.
