Constellation tour in Spring
Coma Berenices (The Hair of Berenice)

Click on image to enlarge

Date & Time: Feb 23 2020, from 26:24 to 26:59 JST(+0900)
Composed 8 shots with 5 minutes exposed
Optical: AF zoom-Nikkor 24-85mm (f=50mm, stop: F3.5)
with IDAS LPS-P2-FF Light-pollution suppression
& Kenko PRO Softon[A] filters
Auto-guided with TAKAHASHI EM-200 Equatorial
Digital Camera: Canon EOS 600D (Remodeled)
Location: Ooizumi, Hokuto city, Yamanashi pref.

Camera Settings: Recording Format...14bit CCD-RAW, converted to 16bit TIFF(5184×3456)
Sensitivity...ISO800



Astroarts StellaNavigator 		The constellation of Coma Berenices can be found around a huge and faint open cluster of Mel. 111 in north east of Leo. The constellation refers to a story concerning the hair of Berenice, queen of ancient Egypt. She offered her own hair on the temple of altar to pray the triumph of her husband.
Around the border of Coma Berenices and Virgo coincides the North Pole of Galactic coordinates; so hardly includes the inner-galactic matter to obstruct the dimmed light from deep space. We can appreciate uncountable galaxies around the field on account of this. The constellation includes 8 Messier's objects and seven of those are galaxies around 10 to 50 millions light years away. Almost all of bright galaxies around the boundary on Virgo belong to the "Virgo galactic cluster" about 70 millions light years away. And it's known that a larger galactic cluster of "Coma cluster" about 300 millions light years away at around the northern region of the constellation. Those galactic clusters consist of some thousands of individual galaxies. And it's considered that the "Local group of galaxies" which includes our Galaxy, is pulled by their gigantic gravitation.


Guide for Deep Sky Objects

Mel.111 .....Vast open cluster with 5deg., 260 ly. away
M53 .....Small & dense globular cluster in eastern region, 65 thousand ly. away
Black-eye galaxy M64 .....Galaxy with noticeable dark lane, about 13 million ly. away
M85 .....An elliptical galaxy at northern edge of Virgo Cluster, 54.8 million ly. away
M88 .....A spiral Galaxy in northern region of Virgo Cluster, 41 million ly. away
NGC4548(M91) .....A dimmed bared galaxy in Virgo Cluster
M98 .....An edge-on galaxy around SW in Com, 36 million ly away
M99 .....A spiral galaxy around SW in Com, 41 million ly away
M100 .....Face-on galaxy at the northern edge of Virgo Cluster
NGC4065 Group .....Small elliptic galaxy & surrounding group in western edge
NGC4136 .....Small face-on galaxy located near the northwest edge, about 4.2 deg NW of γCom.
NGC4147 .....Small globular cluster in SW region.
Around HCG61, Abell 1495 .....Unique-shape compact galaxy group (The Box) & far galaxy cluster in NW region
Around NGC4274 .....3 medium sized galaxies in 2 deg. NW of gamma Com.
NGC4293 .....Active galaxy at 1deg. west of M85 with size of 5' in E-W direction
NGC4298, NGC4302 .....Two closing spirals in the Virgo Cluster
NGC4340, NGC4350 .....Bared & lenticular galaxies floating in northern edge of Virgo Cluster
NGC4393 .....Indistinct spiral galaxy at 0.7deg. south of gamma Com, 46.5 million ly. away
NGC4448 .....Small barred galaxy at 30' NE of γCom
NGC4450 .....A small spiral galaxy in north of Virgo Cluster
NGC4494 .....Bright elliptic galaxy at a deg. west of NGC4565
NGC4559 .....Medium-sized spiral galaxy just east of Mel.111, 45 million ly. away
NGC4565 .....Famous "edge-on galaxy" just east of Mel.111, 45 million ly. away
NGC4651(Umbrella Galaxy) .....Tidal-interacting galaxy with an umbrella-like structure at 7deg. NW of εVir
NGC4676(The Mice) .....A unique-shaped coliding galactic pair with long tails, 300 million ly away
NGC4689 .....Face-on galaxy at 4.5deg. NW of εVir
NGC4710 .....Spindle-shaped edge-on galaxy in northeast of Virgo Cluster
NGC4725 .....Medium sized bared galaxy around center of constellation
NGC4747 .....Peculiar galaxy with stream structures at 22 arc min. NE of NGC4725
NGC5053 .....Small and sparse globular cluster 1 deg SE of M53, 49500 ly. away
Coma Cluster .....A cluster of galaxies in northern area, 290 million ly. away
PK339+88.1 & NGC4725 .....A spiral galaxy in northern region and a vast & dimmed planetary nebula at 1.2 deg. ENE



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Copyright(c) 2020 by Naoyuki Kurita, All rights reserved.
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