Constellation, Com
Coma Berenices: the Bernice's Hair
Coma Berenices covers 389 square degrees of sky, the 42nd largest of the 88. Its brightest star is star HIP 64394. It is best placed in the evening sky in May.
Show Coma Berenices in the live sky
Coma Berenices at a glance
| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| IAU abbreviation | Com |
| Meaning | the Bernice's Hair |
| Pronounced | COE-muh BER-uh-NICE-eez |
| Genitive, used in star names | Comae Berenices (for example a Bayer name such as α Comae Berenices) |
| Area | 389 square degrees, number 42 of 88 by size |
| Stars to magnitude 6 in our catalogue | 38 |
| Brightest star | star HIP 64394, magnitude 4.2 |
| Best seen | Evenings in May, when it is highest at 9 pm |
| Declination range | 13° to 33° |
| Borders | Canes Venatici, Virgo, Leo, Boötes, Ursa Major |
Where on Earth you can see Coma Berenices
Coma Berenices spans declinations 13° to 33°. Every part of it rises above the horizon at some moment for observers between latitudes 57°S and 90°N. Some of it can be seen from latitudes 77°S to 90°N. North of 77°N none of it ever sets. This is geometry only: it ignores haze, hills and buildings near the horizon.
From six cities
| City | Latitude | Visibility | Middle at its highest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pune | 18.5°N | All of it rises | 86° |
| New York | 40.7°N | All of it rises | 71° |
| London | 51.5°N | All of it rises | 61° |
| Tromsø | 69.6°N | All of it rises | 42° |
| Tokyo | 35.7°N | All of it rises | 76° |
| Sydney | 33.9°S | All of it rises | 34° |
Coma Berenices's named stars
These stars in Coma Berenices have names approved by the IAU Working Group on Star Names. Magnitude is brightness: a lower number is brighter, and the faintest stars seen with the naked eye on a dark night are about magnitude 6.
| Star | Designation | Magnitude | Distance (light-years) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diadem | α Comae Berenices | 4.32 | 58.2 |
Distances are about, from the HYG database (Hipparcos parallax), and "not known" means the catalogue has no reliable parallax for that star.
How these facts were found
The name, meaning and boundaries are the IAU's. Area, borders and the latitude ranges are computed from those boundaries; the brightest star and the star count come from a magnitude-6 star catalogue; star names are matched to the catalogue by Hipparcos number and checked by position. The month is when Coma Berenices's middle crosses the north-south line of the sky at 9 pm local solar time. See How we know.
Sources
- IAU: The Constellations. Names, meanings, pronunciations and boundaries
- IAU Working Group on Star Names. The official names of stars
- astronomy-engine. The MIT licensed library that does the calculations, run on the page's build machine and in the app
- HYG database v4.4 (astronexus). Distances, spectral types and luminosities, licence CC BY-SA 4.0