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Berenice was the queen of Egypt in 245 BC. Her name meant bringer of victory, and she was renown for her striking beauty, and the loveliness of her long golden hair. When her husband, King Ptolemy III, left to lead his armies to war against the Syrians, Berenice prayed every day at the alter of Aphrodite (Venus), for his safe return. When news came that the war was going badly, she cut off her beautiful long golden tresses, and laid them on the alter as an offering, in the hopes that it might please the goddess, and she would protect her husband.
Ptolemy returned safe and victorious the next day. When he learned of his wife's sacrifice, he went to the alter of Aphrodite himself to thank the goddess for her protection, only to find the alter empty, and the queen's hair stolen. In a rage, he vowed to kill all the priests who tended the alter. But that night, the royal astronomer, Conon, came to the king's court, and announced that the missing hair had been found. He stepped outside and pointed at an area of the sky between the herdsman (Bootes), and the lion (Leo), announcing that Aphrodite was so impressed with the queen's offering, she took the long golden locks herself, and placed them in the sky, to honour the queen. And sure enough, there was a group of sparkling stars right where Conon was pointing, the perfect celestial image of the queen's long flowing locks, described by the Roman poet Catullus as "the consecrated offering of Berenice's golden hair, which the divine Venus placed, a new constellation among the ancient ones, preceding the slow Bootes, who sinks late and reluctantly into the deep ocean..."
The mystery was solved, and the grouping of stars became known as the constellation Coma Berenices (Berenice's hair), as depicted in the Stellarium art below.
Coma Berenices may be a small constellation, but it is full of treasures. The most obvious of these, visible to the naked eye, and a wonderful sight through binoculars or a low power, large field telescope, is a grouping of stars known as the Coma Star Cluster. It is also known as Mel 111, after the the astronomer Melotte, who was the first to include it in an astronomical catalogue.
The constellation is also full of galaxies, one of the brightest and most spectacular - easily found in a small scope - is M64, also known as the Black Eye Galaxy, shown in the Hubble Space Telescope image below. (Click on image to enlarge.)
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