Leo loses his tail. We gain a constellation

Tonight’s chart shows the sky in April high to the south around mid-evening. To the upper left of the constellation Leo the Lion are dozens of very faint stars. They make up the constellation Coma Berenices, otherwise known as Berenice’s Hair. You need a dark sky to appreciate the constellation Coma Berenices. If you have one … it’s very beautiful.

The Greek-Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy and others considered these stars the tuft at the end of Leo the Lion’s tail. Coma Berenices remained part of Leo until a few hundred years ago, when it was first listed as a separate constellation.


But the next day the hair was gone!

Star chart with stars in black on white background.

The constellation Coma Berenices. Click here for a larger sky chart.



Large spiral galaxy with smaller fuzzy oblong galaxies behind it.

There’s a vast cluster of galaxies located in the direction of the constellation Coma Berenices. Here is a majestic face-on spiral galaxy located deep within the Coma Cluster. Read more about the Coma galaxy cluster. Image via NASA.

Bottom line: The constellation Leo once had a tail, a clump of faint stars. Now these same stars are known as Coma Berenices, the hair of a queen.

Star-hop from Leo to the Coma star cluster


Larry Sessions