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Community photo entitled Coma Berenices, the hair of the queen by Steven Bellavia on 05/10/2026 at Smithfield, VA

Coma Berenices, the hair of the queen

On 05/10/2026 09:40 pm by Steven Bellavia | Website | Smithfield, VA

If you have really dark skies or can get to a place with dark skies, this is a great time to view Coma Berenices, the hair of Berenice II Euergetis, queen regnant of Cyrenaica from 258 to 246 BCE and queen of Ptolemaic Egypt from 246 to 222 BCE as the wife of Ptolemy III
I'll never forget my first May trip to Cherry Springs in 2015 when I had no idea what that giant star cluster nearly straight up in the sky was. It reminded me of a larger version of the Beehive Cluster, in Cancer.
It's not officially a "star cluster," but now I understand why "hair" is in the constellation name.

Rokinon 14mm, f/2.8 lens
Sightron Star Enhance filter
Canon EOS SL3 camera

28x13-second untracked exposures, calibrated in Nebulosity, registered and integrated in PixInsight