Star profile
Gamma Comae Berenices
What is Gamma Comae Berenices
Gamma Comae Berenices appears within the Coma Star Cluster — Melotte 111 — yet does not belong to it: an aged orange giant that only shares a line of sight with that drift of young, blue stars. At 167 light-years, twelve times the Sun's radius, sixty times its light, it gains presence by contrast with its accidental neighbours. Arab astronomers called it Al Ḍafīrah, the Lock of Hair.
Where it is and when to see it
Gamma Comae Berenices lies in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is March: the Sun sits at the opposite point of the sky and the star culminates around midnight. How high it climbs above the horizon depends on the latitude you watch from.
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The signature wall
Stelvia's sky works like a signature wall: anyone can leave their name and a message on a real star, and that signature goes up on the map for everyone to read. Signing is free.
A signature without a lock can be replaced by someone else's. The lock makes the signature permanent and lets you choose a symbolic name for the star, always shown next to the star's catalogue identifier. How the lock works
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A public signature from a real person. The chosen name is a symbolic denomination within Stelvia, with no official standing or IAU recognition: the sky is not for sale and belongs to no one.
Astronomical data for Gamma Comae Berenices
- Constellation
- Coma Berenices
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.35
- Distance
- 167.3 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 186.734° · Dec 28.268°
- Catalogue
- HIP 60742 · HD 108381
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Coma Berenices
Coma Berenices has 39 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Beta Comae Berenices4.23
- DiademAlpha Comae Berenices4.32
- 11 Comae Berenices4.72
- 36 Comae Berenices4.76
- 12 Comae Berenices4.78
- 23 Comae Berenices4.80
- 41 Comae Berenices4.80
- 37 Comae Berenices4.88