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In one restricted region, midway between Præsepe and the Milky Way, he located 135 nebulæ, where only three had until then been catalogued; and he counted 108 such objects clustering round the star 31 Comæ Berenices, and so closely that all might be occulted together by the moon. The general photographic Catalogue of Nebulæ which Dr. Wolf has begun to prepare will thus be a most voluminous work.
This strange region, lying mostly in the constellation Virgo, is roughly outlined by the stars beta, eta, gamma, delta, and epsilon, which form two sides of a square some 15° across. It extends, however, for some distance into Coma Berenices, while outlying nebulæ belonging to it are also to be found in the eastern part of Leo.
"Paint as many Berenices as you like, but I wish you could feel with me perhaps you will, on reflection that you should choose another model." "Why?" said Hans, standing up, and looking serious again. "Because she may get into such a position that her face is likely to be recognized. Mrs. Meyrick and I are anxious for her that she should be known as an admirable singer.
"If thou wouldst gaze on starry Charioteer, And hast heard legends of the wondrous Goat, Vast looming shalt thou find on the Twins' left, His form bowed forward." The zodiacal constellations of Gemini, Cancer, and Leo, together with their neighbors Auriga, the Lynx, Hydra, Sextans, and Coma Berenices, will furnish an abundance of occupation for our second night at the telescope.
Dire is the wrath of Ptolemy, the consternation of the priests, the scandal to religion; when Conon, the court-astronomer, luckily searching the heavens, finds the missing tresses in an utterly unexpected place as a new constellation of stars, which to this day bears the title of Coma Berenices.
Burnham, using the Lick telescope, in 1890 made the distance 0.7"; Hall, using the Washington telescope, in 1891 made it a trifle more than 0.5". He had measured it in 1886 as only 0.27". The period of revolution is believed to be about twenty-five years. In Coma Berenices there is an outlying field of the marvelous nebulous region of Virgo, which we may explore on some future evening.
The stratum of Coma Berenices he judged to be the nearest to our system of such layers; nor did the marked aggregation of nebulæ towards both poles of the circle of the Milky Way escape his notice. These he regarded as "very aged, and drawing on towards a period of change or dissolution." "This method of viewing the heavens," he concluded, "seems to throw them into a new kind of light.
The modern reader will not find much to interest him in the Coma Berenices, abounding as it does in mythological allusions. The poem to Mallius or Allius, written at Verona, is partly mythological, partly personal, and though somewhat desultory, contains many fine passages.
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