Generalities: it is a small modest constellation of the northern sky. Its interest is tied to the boundless number of galaxies, partly very weak and remote,which can be perceived.  Berenice’s Hair transits at midnight in April.

Origins and mythology: Berenice’s Hair was officially recognized by the astronomer Tycho Brahe in the seventeenth century, but it is already quoted in literary works of ancient Greece. It is associated with the myth of the Egyptian queen  Berenice, who offered  the gods her splendid hair in exchange for the salvation of  her husband Tolomeo III, left for the war against the Syrian king Seleuco. Since the king returned unharmed from the war, Berenice cut her beautiful hair and offered it to the gods. Zeus transformed it into the  constellation to make its beauty eternal.

Stars: Berenice’s Hair doesn't show any stars under  magnitude 4. The main star (alpha)  is of magnitude 4.2.

Other objects: the constellation is famous for the great quantity of galaxies it shows. In fact in Berenice’s Hair extends, from the near constellation of the Virgo, the heap of galaxies called of the Virgo, set at about seventy million  light-years. By means of great professional telescopes it is possible to see on the background of these galaxies another cluster of weaker galaxies. It is the so-called cluster of Berenice’s Hair, much more distant (350 million light-years), which is the background to the nearest galaxies of the cluster of the Virgo because of its perspective effect.
In this constellation a globular cluster, M53 and an open cluster of great extension are also included . In Berenice’s Hair a lot of galaxies are found ,catalogued by Messier: M64, M85, M88, M98, M99 and M 100.

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