Skywatch: High heavenly hair

A scarce winter constellations preponderance notably Gemini the Twins and Auriga the Charioteer are still hanging out in the western evening sky but for the preponderance part the spring constellations have taken over They re not as flashy as those of winter There are still a multitude of celestial treasures to find but you just need to visually dig for them a little deeper That literally can be a lot of fun especially if you can stargaze in the darker countryside skies Last week I featured the large but faint constellation Virgo the Virgin now visible in the low southern evening sky This week I want to take you to Coma Berenices a small and faint spring constellation Its name is Latin for Berenice s Lock representing the beautiful hair of Queen Berenice of Egypt Coma Berenices has a distinction that no other constellation has The best-known tale about how the hair wound up in the heavens comes from the Greeks and is based on a true story but still possesses quite a bit of malarkey I ll get to that in a bit The three brightest stars of Coma Berenices form a wide arrow pointing at the much brighter and bigger constellation Bootes the Herdsman Coma Berenice s hair though is made up of roughly a Y-shaped cluster of about a dozen stars just off the western side of the arrow Mike Lynch I think the best way to find it is to face south as darkness sets in and look for the brightest and highest star you can see That s Arcturus a star that has a definite orange-reddish glow to it Just hold your fist at arm s length and about two and a half of your fist-widths to the right of Arcturus is where to start looking for the heavenly hair You may need binoculars to help find it especially if you have to put up with any light corruption In dark rural skies it should be a piece of cake to spot The star cluster that makes up Queen Berenice s hair is made up of very young stars about million years old The stars that make up the locks are about light-years away just down the celestial block from us Oh by the way just one light-year equals nearly trillion miles Now back to the story concerning the heavenly hair Berenice was the queen of Egypt around B C and was madly in love with her husband the famous Pharaoh Ptolemy III Back in those days there were a large number of fierce battles but an upcoming battle against the Assyrians was expected to be especially bloody Queen Berenice was scared to death that her king might meet his death So she made a deal She promised the gods that she d cut off all of her beautiful golden hair and offer it as a sacrifice if Ptolemy returned safely Her prayers were answered when Ptolemy returned just a week after he left It was a tremendous military success True to her word Berenice sheared off all of her hair and dedicated it to the temple of Aphrodite the goddess of love However within a week the temple was broken into and thieves made off with the hair The temple priests were in charge of defense and in big big trouble They came up with a plan to save their necks The night after the robbery the temple priests requested that Berenice and Ptolemy join them outside to show them something amazing They pointed high in the sky and displayed the royal couple a small but faint cluster of stars and claimed that Aphrodite shot Berenice s sacrificed hair high into the heavens for everyone worldwide to enjoy Fortunately for the temple priests Berenice and Ptolemy swallowed this bull hook line and sinker Every spring we can also enjoy the heavenly hair in the constellation Coma Berenices but we know the truth Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and retired broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis St Paul He is the author of Stars a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and adventurepublications net Mike is available for private star parties You can contact him at mikewlynch comcast net Related Articles Skywatch Virgo the Virgin a large but faint constellation Skywatch Crowded space Skywatch Dippers and bears flying high Skywatch A crow a cup and a water snake Skywatch The two brightest stars and a guest star