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Lion, now in the east each evening. Leo is relatively easy to see. The front part of the Lion looks like a backwards question mark, and the back part is a little triangle, which includes the star Denebola, marked on today's chart. The word Deneb in a star name always means tail, and this star marks the tail of Leo.
• Do you know how to use the pointer stars in the Big Dipper to locate Polaris, the North Star? Instead of going northward from the pointer stars to Polaris, the North Star, go southward instead to find the constellation Leo.
• Imagine that Leo is holding his tail out. In the place where you might see a "puff" at the end of the Lion's tail, you'll notice a fuzzy patch not too far away from Denebola. This is the constellation Coma Berenices, or Berenice's Hair. Indeed, the constellation Coma Berenices once was considered part of the constellation Leo.
• The constellation Coma Berenices contains the Coma star cluster. This is an open cluster, a loose collection of stars held together by gravity.
• The Coma star cluster is estimated to be about 288 light-years away and has at least 37 known stars that are 400 million years old. It is the third-closest open cluster to our Earth and sun. Only the Ursa Major cluster (the bowl stars of the Big Dipper) and the Hyades cluster (the head of Taurus) are closer.
• Beyond the visible stars in the Coma cluster is something else: a vast region of galaxies.
• Viewing Tip: To enhance your view of the Coma star cluster, take a paper towel tube or roll up some dark paper into a tube and place it to your eye. The tube will shield your eye from the glare of any ground lights. Binoculars or opera glasses will (Continued on page 25)
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