Our chart at the top of this post shows the constellation Leo the Lion and the Coma star cluster – which you can see in a dark sky – from roughly 10 to 11 p.m. on mid-April evenings. At this time, as seen from the Northern Hemisphere, the constellation of the Lion will be due south and at his highest point in the sky. You’ll see the Lion at nightfall, too, though, fairly high in the southeast sky.
Two bright objects in western sky after sunset? They’re Venus and Jupiter
Mars stays in front of the constellation Leo until June 20, 2012
We’ll talk more about the star cluster shortly, but first here’s how to spot Leo. Two distinctive star patterns make the Lion fairly easy to identify. Leo’s brightest star – the sparkling blue-white gem Regulus – marks the bottom of a backward question mark of stars known as The Sickle. If you see a Lion in this pattern of stars, the Sickle outlines the Lion’s mane. A triangle of stars highlights the Lion’s hindquarters and tail. Denebola, the name of the outermost star in Leo, is an Arabic term meaning the Lion’s Tail.
Throughout April 2012, the planet Mars will beam in front of the Lion and rather close to Regulus. You can distinguish Mars from Regulus because it’s the brighter of the two. What’s more, Mars exhibits a ruddy color while Regulus radiates blue-white. If you have difficulty discerning color with the unaided eye, try looking at these heavenly gems with binoculars. By the way, Mars will be in front of Leo till around the time of the June 2012 solstice. Mars will enter the constellation Virgo in the latter part of June 2012.
Now let’s try star-hopping from Leo the Lion to the Coma star cluster. In ancient times, the Coma star cluster represented the Lion’s tufted tail. Nowadays, this part of the sky belongs to another constellation, Coma Berenices or Berenice’s Hair. As shown on the chart at the top of the page, you can draw a line from the star Regulus through the top star of the triangle (Zosma), and go about twice this distance to locate the cluster.
Coma star cluster in the direction of our constellation Coma Berenices. It is an open star cluster, whose member stars are thought to be loosely bound by gravity. Image Credit: NASA/Expedition 6
Although the Coma star cluster (Melotte 111) is visible to the unaided eye in a dark country sky, sparkling against the background of the Milky Way, you might need binoculars to see this loose tangle of stars if your skies are beset by light pollution. It is a beautiful sight in a dark sky.
This is an open star cluster. That means its stars were probably born together from a single cloud of gas and dust in space, and they are still loosely bound by gravity. There are about 100 stars in the Coma star cluster, which lies some 288 light-years distant. In other words, this star cluster lies within our Milky Way galaxy.
But wait. There’s more in this direction of space: a vast collection of galaxies external to our Milky Way.
A majestic face-on spiral galaxy located deep within the Coma Cluster of galaxies. Image Credit: NASA
The Coma galaxy cluster, also in the direction of the constellation Coma Berenices, is made up not of individual stars, but of whole galaxies of stars.
It is invisible to the unaided eye (or even in a small telescope), but astronomers with large telescopes study this region of space to learn more about the cosmos.
Coma Cluster: Galaxies in Coma Berenices
Bottom line: On April evenings, star-hop from the constellation Leo to the Coma star cluster in the constellation Coma Berenices. The red planet Mars is also in Leo in April 2012. Plus – although you cannot see it with your eye or with binoculars – a huge cluster of external galaxies – lies in the direction of Coma Berenices.
The 3d sentence in the 3d paragraph reads: “Mars exhibits a ruddy color while Spica radiates blue-white.” I’m sure it should read Regulus instead of Spica. I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who types typos sometimes lol
Bibi,
Many thanks for pointing out the error. It has been corrected.
Bruce
“On these dark, moonless nights…”
I would hardly call tonight “moonless”. Granted, the moon may be in Sagittarius [thus taking a low path across the sky], but it does rise after midnight and shines until daybreak. In the southern hemisphere of course, the moon is taking a high path across the sky and will rise around 10pm, making the idea of a moonless night even less correct.
Franco,
Yes, it’d be more correct to say moonless evenings (as opposed to moonless nights) at our mid-northern latitudes right now, even though more moon-free viewing will be available each night until the new moon’s arrival on April 21. Since the last full moon on April 6 could be said to be the Southern Hemisphere’s “Hunter’s Moon,” you are right that the Southern Hemisphere has less moon-free viewing time at present than we do in the Northern Hemisphere.
Thank you for your comments, and for helping us to stay on our toes!
Bruce.
The coma cluster is a touchstone for me in my somewhat light polluted skys. If I can see the cluster with direct vision wit my 65 year old eyes, I know that the seeing is at least above average. The cluster is a very nice binonular object. Through a telescope the fov is too narrow to really enjoy the view. Please keep up the good work.
Frank,
Thanks for the good word. I think the best view of this star cluster is with the eye alone, though you really need a clear, dark sky to appreciate its gossamer beauty. Otherwise, binoculars do the trick.
Bruce
we saw a very bright star in the western sky, wondering what it is
If it was a STEADY light, and shined dozens of times brighter than any nearby star –the red-orange beautiful Aldebaran is the closest these days–, it was no doubt the planet Venus.
Saw maybe a meteor in the western sky at 8:30 from Rockford,IL did anyone else see it?
YES! I saw a meteor in the western sky from southwestern WI at 8:30 pm. It burned for about 5 seconds and was the largest burning object that I have seen.
just saw what looked like a cluster of very bright objects in western sky at 10:50 PM Eastern time. Looked like one giant very bright object, with binoculars shows up as a very tight cluster of ? stars.
Linda,
I’m guessing that was the Pleiades star cluster, which is relatively close to the planet Venus, the brightest star-like object in the heavens.
Bruce
Was it a meteor in tonight’s Western sky? Observed 9:30p CST from Missouri
Yes! I saw it in the sky, here in West Virginia at around 10:30 EST.
Just finished viewing this in Arizona as well. Large “cluster” of very bright light(s). Any answers?
Vickie,
What direction were you looking and at what time? Perhaps it was the Pleiades star cluster? This dipper-shaped cluster is found between the two brightest star-like objects in the western evening sky – Venus and Jupiter.
Bruce
i just saw two shooting stars about 5min ago
Thanks a million Bruce and Earthsky for articles like this one! I love it when you teach us how to discover CITY SKY treasures!
I mean I followed the instructions to the letter, to find the Coma Cluster in my polluted city sky (tonight barely 4.5 limiting magnitude). With my naked eyes I could only see its brightest star, but using my 10 X 40 binoculars, the limiting magnitude became like 5.5 and then I could see the beautiful cluster. I saw some 10 stars in the cluster itself and about 16 total, in the whole binocular field!
The best of this experience for me was that, what I considered just a void piece of sky before, now became an interesting chunk of sky –I mean the tail of Leo, Coma Berenices and Canes Venatici, since I discovered the latter two today, thanks to this article!–
PLEEEASE Esrthsky, try and publish more articles useful TO ALL OF US, I mean including sky treasures viewable even in city skies, instead of mostly publishing articles about treasures impossible to see from the city (like galaxies, nebulae,, zodiacal light, I mean things so faint that you need rural skies and good telescopes to be able to view, so the majority of people reading the article will not take benefit from it).
I mean why not publish most of the time articles about beautiful things viewable from the city, like this Coma cluster, the Hyades, the Pleiades, Delphinus, Saggita, The Coathanger, Hydra’s head,, Corona Borealis, M42 do you get my drift? I mean all these objects are viewable from the city sky on any clear night, with a pair of pretty basic binoculars such as mine. Even M/7, NGC 6231, M31 and M44 sre barely visible with binoculars as well, but when you talk about super-tough things to see in the city, even with huge telescopes, like the Milky Way (any part of the band, which is impossible to be in the city sky), galaxies in Monoceros, Coma Berenices and Virgo, the Zodiacal Light or any deep-sky object dimmer than magnitude 4, then it becomes impossible for us city people to see it and believe me, it is very frustrating to read an article on how to see something just impossible to see for most of us!
Haven’t you guys noticed how every time you publish an article of something available (viewable) to the majority of people, like the Moon, planets and meteor showers, you get tons of visits and comments, and when you do articles of complicated, impossible to see in the city stuff, you get almost no response to those? I mean it’s good to see those articles from now and then, to learn something new, but let’s face it, 95% or more of us don’t have access to decently dark skies and a decently sized telescope, so we won’t be able to appreciate many things you mention in many of your articles!
Just a little honest input.
Keep up the GREAT work!
Bibi,
It thrills me to no end that you saw the Coma star cluster, and, yes, we’ll keep you folks in mind that don’t have access to pristine skies. For the most part, we try to point out treasures that can be viewed with the unaided eye – or, at most, ordinary binoculars.
Have you yet seen the Omega Centauri globular star cluster? It’s visible to the naked eye in a moderately dark sky – and hopefully through binoculars in a light-polluted city. Please let us know if you see it. http://earthsky.org/tonight/spica-guide-to-omega-centauri
Keep those comments coming. We appreciate your honest input!
Bruce
Hi, Bruce! I just tried seeing the Omega cluster with binoculars, bud sadly tonight the limiting ,magnitude to the south is a measly 3.5, even without the moon present, so all I hardly saw was very indistinct and blurry circular spot. But the good news is I could discover the shape of the constellation Centaurus, which means I will not mix it up with Lupus anymore lol. The south seems to be the most light-polluted area in my city, and the hour didn’t help either (I looked close to 1 am, still very light-polluted, the best views are at about 2 hours before sunrise). But I will keep trying to see that interesting cluster, I’m sure I’ll be able to see it when the sky clears up to a more decent 4 limiting magnitude or better!
Bibi,
I trust that you’ll see it one of these days. You’ll have to find a dark sky sometime.
Bruce
Martin,
Think about weight and whether you want to depend on a mount or not. Some advice can be found in the EarthSky post at http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/top-tips-for-using-ordinary-binoculars-for-stargazing
Bruce
Hi!
Im from Norway. Just want to say that I love the articles on earthandsky.com. Especially everything that is about stars and space to do. I have learned a lot and its all very interesting. Keep on doing this good work.:)
Thank you Eva. Please come visit again and often.
Bruce