Knots In The Queen's Hair

Hi all

Time being short, and work required to buy more astro stuff, I took a quick look at Coma Berenices.

24 Comae Berenices: A pretty gold and blue combo with a generous sep. of 20". Easy to spot at lower magnifications and worth a visit.
35 Comae Berenices: The primary star is a tight double that eluded me, but a third component lies 28" away, a couple of magnitudes lower than the 6th mag. primary shows up nicely at 63X.
2 Comae Berenices: A nice tight pair of white and yellow stars, though their closeness, sep. of 3", makes the yellow difficult to discern. 6th & 7t mag. stars in a very barren field, only one other star seen at 103X.
ADS 8470: A fiery red primary is offset by a white companion, more fire & ice in the sky.
STF 1633: A pair of equal 7th mag. yellow stars sit snugly together separated by 9" brings them into range at 63X. A flattened diamond pattern sits off to the extreme west of the FOV.
12 Comae Berenices: Wide yellow and white companions are separated by a whopping 66" making this split easy at all magnitudes. I saw it best at 63X where they sit in a nice busy field of varying white stars.
STF 1643: A beautiful pair of glowing red embers sitting in the black grate of the night sky. Both shine dully at mag. 8.5 and are separated by a mere 2.2". It required pushing the magnification to 103X, but the sight was worth it. A definite return object. A kite flies off to the west.
17 Comae Berenices: Unequal white pair in an empty field. The separation is 145 and at 5.5 and 6.5 mag. I would imagine that this pair would be splittable with binoculars.
STF 1678: Wide, sep. of 34", this unequal white pair of 6th and 7th mag. stars are the dominant stars in a field of faint companions. Easy at 48X and better at 63X.
STF 1685: Dull orange meets brilliant white, a generous sep. of 16" lies between the 7th mag. primary and the 7.5 mag. partner.
32+33 Comae Berenices: A ruby and diamond are plucked from the jewel box and dropped into the heavens to give us 32 + 33. The primary is an incredibly deep red almost dippig into the background. This is tempered by the pure brilliance of the white companion and there is no better contrast to be seen. A sep. of an amazing 195" makes the pair easy, again binos should split them. Another pair that deserves another look at a later date.

Better known for galaxies such as NGC 4565, Coma Berenices offers a nice collection of doubles and the contrast between the yellows and blue and the reds and whites are wonderful to behold. There are many more doubles residing in this small constellation and I hope to complete the list on my next visit.