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Entertainment

Anne Heche is in a coma and has not regained consciousness since car crash | Anne Heche

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Anne Heche has not regained consciousness since shortly after she crashed her car in Los Angeles on Friday.

Initial reports about the actor’s condition said she was “stable” and firefighters said she had spoken to rescuers as she was pulled from the wreckage.

However, on Monday a spokesperson for Heche, 53, said: “Despite previous reports that Heche was stable, shortly after the accident, [she] became unconscious, slipping into a coma and is in critical condition.”

Heche’s representatives added: “At this time Anne is in extreme critical condition. She has a significant pulmonary injury requiring mechanical ventilation and burns that require surgical intervention.

On Saturday Heche’s publicist had said that her condition was “stable” and her family asked for “thoughts and prayers”. The previous morning, reports suggested Heche had been driving at speed down a street before crashing into a house.

This caused what the Los Angeles Fire Department described as a “heavy fire”, which took a number of firefighters an hour to extinguish.

The occupant of the house escaped without injury but the building was deemed uninhabitable. A fundraising page has been set up to help the owner replace her belongings and home.

The nextdoor neighbours told Fox News that the car had ploughed right through the house. “The windows were broken, so I opened the back door of the car. She [Heche] answered and said she was not OK, so that was tough. I know they didn’t get her out of the car until the fire was pretty much put out.”

Heche, who has two sons, is best known for her roles in films such as Psycho, Donnie Brasco, Six Days Seven Nights and Cedar Rapids.

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Entertainment

Actress Anne Heche is in a coma following crash into home, rep says

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Actress Anne Heche has fallen into a coma and remains in “extreme critical condition” days after she crashed her car into a Los Angeles home, causing both to erupt into flames, a representative told news outlets on Monday.

“She has a significant pulmonary injury requiring mechanical ventilation and burns that require surgical intervention,” Michael McConnell, a Heche representative, told Reuters and other news outlets. “She is in a coma and has not regained consciousness since shortly after the accident.”

On Friday around 10:55 a.m., a car crashed into a home in the Mar Vista neighborhood, causing a “heavy fire,” the Los Angeles Fire Department said. Heche, 53, was pulled from the car, a Mini Cooper, and transported to a hospital.

It took 59 firefighters and 65 minutes to extinguish the blaze, which caused major damage, according to the fire department.

A woman was inside the home during the crash but was not injured, CNN reported. A GoFundMe campaign has been set up for the woman, who “lost her entire lifetime of possessions,” according to the fundraiser statement.

The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating the circumstances of the crash, including the possibility that Heche may have been driving under the influence, Officer Norma Eisenman, a spokeswoman, confirmed to The Washington Post. A warrant for the actress’s blood was obtained the day of the incident, Eisenman said. As of early Tuesday, Heche had not been charged with any crime.

Heche’s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Post.

Heche’s acting career took off after she appeared on the soap opera “Another World” beginning in the 1980s, and she later starred in films including “Donnie Brasco” and “Six Days Seven Nights.” She dated Ellen DeGeneres for 3½ years beginning in the late 1990s, in a relationship that attracted intense public attention.

Shortly before the crash on Friday, around 10:35 a.m., Heche bought a wig at a salon in Venice, the salon’s owner, Richard Glass, told the Los Angeles Times, adding that she was in good spirits and did not appear to be intoxicated. He posted a photo on Instagram with a smiling Heche.

TMZ reported that Heche crashed her vehicle into the garage of an apartment building that same morning. The media outlet obtained video it says shows her peeling off after the collision, though the footage is not time-stamped.

Surveillance footage from 10:53 a.m. that day, obtained by CBSLA and TMZ, shows Heche’s blue Mini Cooper speeding through Mar Vista just before crashing into the house, according to the outlets.

David Manpearl, a neighbor of the destroyed home, told the Times he was at his desk on Friday morning when he saw a car speed past his window. He heard a crash moments later. Manpearl ran out of his house and down the street, where he saw a car had driven through the front of his neighbor’s house and was wedged in the back wall, he told the Times. Going inside, he saw a barefoot occupant in the middle of her kitchen, asking for help with her pets, he told the paper.

“She couldn’t move because the ceiling had come down, so there was all kinds of debris everywhere,” Manpearl said, adding that he helped the house’s occupant get to safety — and tried to help Heche.

“It got to a point where there was fire everywhere. It was all around us,” Manpearl told the Times. “It had spread from the car to the house and the smoke was getting thick. I kept hoping that the fire department was there, but it hadn’t come yet, and eventually I had to leave the house for my own safety.”

Heche was transported to the hospital with severe injuries, and CBSLA reported the wrecked blue Mini Cooper was later pulled out of the house.



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Entertainment

Anne Heche crash: Actress slipped into coma, remains in critical condition, rep says

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MAR VISTA, LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Actress Anne Heche fell into a coma and is in critical condition after her car crashed into a Los Angeles home, a spokesperson disclosed Monday.

Initial reports declared Heche in stable condition after Friday’s crash and firefighters described her as talking to her rescuers after she was pulled from the wreckage.

But a spokesperson for the actress on Monday clarified: “Despite previous reports that Heche was stable, shortly after the accident, Anne Heche became unconscious, slipping into a coma and is in critical condition. She has a significant pulmonary injury requiring mechanical ventilation and burns that require surgical intervention.”

Police tested Heche for drugs and alcohol following the crash, a source confirmed to Eyewitness News. Due to her condition, a warrant was obtained to test Heche’s blood for substances, according to the source. Such steps are commonly taken while investigating a suspected DUI crash, especially when the driver is unable to talk.

Authorities have not received the results of the lab work.

The crash was reported shortly before 11 a.m. Friday at a two-story house in the 1800 block of South Walgrove Avenue, in the Mar Vista neighborhood, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

The car smashed into the home and started a fire.

Video obtained by Eyewitness News showed Heche’s Mini Cooper badly damaged and burned and being towed out of the home.

According to LAFD Capt. Erik Scott, firefighters arrived at the home to find a well-involved fire.

“When we arrived on scene, we had a solo vehicle that appeared to be driving at a high rate of speed on a perpendicular street and launched through the front yard, into the home,” said Scott. “So deep … about 30 feet in.”

Scott said Heche – who was officially identified as the driver behind the wheel – was trapped inside the car as flames from the vehicle began spreading to the home.

“She was talking to us at the time that we were able to pull her out, so that’s a good sign,” said Scott.

Meanwhile, video that has since gone viral shows what appears to be Heche’s Mini Cooper crashing into a garage door at an apartment complex half a mile west from the Mar Vista home.

Police said an investigation is underway related to “misdemeanor hit and run incidents” that occurred before the Mar Vista crash. No arrests have been made.

The woman living in the Mar Vista home was not hurt but neighbors say she lost everything due to the fire caused by the crash. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help her.

A witness told ABC News the car stopped two feet from where she was sitting.

The tenant of the home has been identified as Lynne Mishele. Her attorney, Shawn Holley, issued a statement Monday:

“Ms. Mishele is devastated by what happened to her on Friday – not only because she and her pets almost lost their lives, but because all of her property, including items of profound sentimental value, were destroyed. She asks for privacy at this incredibly difficult time.”

A neighbor described for Eyewitness News the initial terrifying moments after the crash and his efforts to help both Heche and the resident of the home.

David Manpearl lives down the street and rushed over to his neighbor’s home after hearing the crash.

She was not seriously injured, but she was focused on safely getting her animals out of the ruins of the house. She asked him to help round up her leashes which had been by the front door – now pushed some 25 feet away from its original location by the force of the impact.

He then went to help the driver of the Mini, not knowing her identity. He first asked her if she was OK.

“She responded unfortunately that no she was not OK,” he recalled. “And she didn’t turn her head toward me at all so I never saw her face.”

He was trying to free her from the car, but a fire underneath was spreading and sending up thick black smoke.

At one point he realized he had to retreat from the home. It eventually took multiple firefighters with specialized equipment to put out the flames and free Heche from the mangled Mini.

Heche’s friend and podcast partner Heather Duffy Boylston on Saturday issued a statement that read in part: “Her family and friends ask for your thoughts and prayers and to respect her privacy during this difficult time.”

Copyright © 2022 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.



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Entertainment

Hollywood actress Anne Heche in coma since fiery car crash

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Anne Heche attends the premiere for the film “The Tender Bar” at The TLC Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, California, U.S., December 12, 2021. REUTERS/Aude Guerrucci

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LOS ANGELES, Aug 8 (Reuters) – Hollywood actress Anne Heche remained hospitalized in critical condition, comatose and connected to a breathing machine on Monday, four days after suffering severe injuries in a fiery Los Angeles car crash, a spokesperson for the performer said.

Heche, 53, has been hospitalized since shortly after the compact car she was driving sped out of control in a Westside neighborhood of Los Angeles late Friday morning, plowed into a house and burst into flames, according to police.

No one inside the home was hurt, but the impact set the dwelling ablaze, requiring a response by dozens of firefighters.

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A Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson said on Monday the cause and circumstances of the crash remain under investigation.

Heche is in a coma and has not regained consciousness since shortly after the accident, said Michael McConnell, a member of the Los Angeles talent management company representing her, Zero Gravity Management.

“At this time, she is in extreme critical condition,” he told Reuters in a text message, adding that Heche “has significant pulmonary injury requiring mechanical ventilation and burns that require surgical intervention.”

The Los Angeles Times quoted a Venice Beach salon owner, Richard Glass, recounting a visit by Heche to his shop shortly before the accident, describing her as “a sweet little girl” as she purchased a red wig on Friday morning.

Heche came to prominence for her Emmy-winning work on the daytime television drama “Another World” and went on to star in other screen roles including the HBO series “Hung” and such films as “Wag the Dog” and “Cedar Rapids.”

She made tabloid headlines in the late 1990s for an affair with comedian Ellen DeGeneres around the time that DeGeneres came out publicly as a lesbian. Following their split, Heche wed cameraman Coleman Laffoon, but they later divorced, and she spent some years after that in a relationship with actor James Tupper, her co-star in the short-lived TV show “Men in Trees.”

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Reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Stephen Coates

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Entertainment

Anne Heche In “Extremely Critical Condition,” Remains In a Coma Following Fiery Car Crash – Deadline

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Anne Heche’s condition is far graver than it appeared over the weekend, a rep for the Emmy-nominated actor told Deadline.

“At this time Anne is in extreme critical condition. She has a significant pulmonary injury requiring mechanical ventilation and burns that require surgical intervention,” the rep said in a statement. “She is in a coma and has not regained consciousness since shortly after the accident.”

The new statement comes two days after Heche’s publicist released an encouraging statement Saturday listing her as being “in stable condition.” Still, Heche’s family at the time asked for “thoughts and prayers.”

Heche has been in the hospital since Friday when a car she was driving crashed and caught fire in the Mar Vista area of Los Angeles.

Fifty-nine firefighters battled the blaze, which had engulfed both Heche’s car and the house she crashed into, for 65 minutes until she could be safely pulled out of the wreckage. She was reportedly able to communicate at the time but lost consciousness shortly thereafter.

There has been a lot of speculation about Heche’s condition before the crash as she was filmed driving erratically and speeding in the minutes prior to the accident, including getting into another, minor car accident, blocks from the crash site. A podcast featuring Heche, in which she is heard slurring her speech, was released Friday, and has been linked to the crash online. That podcast was recorded Tuesday, sources told Deadline.



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World

Parents of Archie Battersbee, U.K. boy in coma, lose life-support battle

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The parents of a 12-year-old British boy left in a coma after suffering a “catastrophic” brain injury three months ago have lost a court appeal to stop doctors from ending his life-support treatment.

Archie Battersbee was found unconscious at his home on April 7 with a “ligature” around his neck, according to court documents. His mother, Hollie Dance, has said she thinks he suffocated while attempting a viral online fad known as the “Blackout Challenge.”

Mother sues TikTok after 10-year-old died trying ‘Blackout Challenge’

Doctors at the Royal London Hospital, where the boy is being treated, believe that he is brain dead and that his body will eventually collapse even if life support continues.

An attorney for the boy’s parents told the court that his mother had seen her son breathe independently of a ventilator on Friday and Saturday, the Guardian newspaper reported.

According to court documents, Dance also reported feeling Archie squeeze her hand on one occasion. Medical staff said they had not witnessed “any sign of spontaneous life in him,” even during painful procedures.

Speaking to reporters Monday outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London — where three Court of Appeal judges upheld an earlier court ruling that continuing life-support treatment was not in Archie’s best interests — Dance vowed not to give up the fight.

“The system shouldn’t be allowed to do this to people,” she said. “All I’ve asked for from day one is time. … That’s my little boy, and I’ll fight as long as I possibly can.”

A number of children have died doing the Blackout Challenge after seeing it on TikTok, according to a U.S. lawsuit filed in May by the mother of Nylah Anderson, a 10-year-old girl from Chester, Pa. Her mother found her hanging in her closet and near-death in December. The girl — described by those who loved her as a precious, fun-loving “butterfly” — died at a hospital five days later.

Other deaths cited in the lawsuit include a 14-year-old Australian boy in April 2020, a 10-year-old Italian girl in January 2021, a 12-year-old Colorado boy in April of that year and a 12-year-old Oklahoma boy in July 2021.

A TikTok spokesperson told The Washington Post at the time that the “disturbing ‘challenge,’ which people seem to learn about from sources other than TikTok, long predates our platform and has never been a TikTok trend.”

Sir Andrew McFarlane, one of three judges in Monday’s U.K. court ruling, said Archie’s condition and the “awful predicament” he and his family are in had received widespread media attention, including a photograph taken before the incident.

However, the judge said Archie “is no longer the boy in the photograph.” He added that the 12-year-old is “someone whose every bodily function is now maintained by artificial means.”

The three Court of Appeal judges said they would delay ending Archie’s treatment for 48 hours — until 2 p.m. local time on Wednesday — to allow his parents to ask the European Court of Human Rights to consider the case.

The boy’s father, Paul Battersbee, was taken to a hospital before Monday’s hearing after suffering from a suspected heart attack.

Jonathan Edwards contributed to this report.

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US

West Virginia woman wakes from coma to name brother in brutal attack

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When Jackson County, W.Va., sheriff’s deputies found Wanda Palmer on her couch in June 2020, she was slumped over and bleeding from head wounds.

“We thought for sure this was a murder case,” Sheriff Ross Mellinger told The Washington Post.

But Palmer ended up surviving, although she fell into a coma. Over two long years, as she lay unconscious, the case stalled. Investigators could not turn up enough evidence to charge a suspect.

But earlier this month, Palmer woke up — and she told deputies that it was her brother who had nearly killed her, Mellinger said. Daniel Palmer is now in custody and has been charged with attempted murder and malicious wounding, according to the sheriff’s department.

“Just the fact that she survived is nothing short of a miracle,” Mellinger told The Post. “But to be able to come back … two years later and identify who her attacker was, it’s spectacular.”

It was not immediately clear if Daniel Palmer had an attorney. According to a criminal complaint obtained by CNN, Palmer denied attacking his sister, saying he was not at her house around the time of the attack.

Wanda and Daniel Palmer lived about a half-mile apart on the same property near Cottageville, a hamlet in Jackson County near the state’s northwestern border, Mellinger said. He said Wanda lived alone in a mobile home. The criminal complaint noted there was a history of violence between the siblings, CNN reported.

One morning in June 2020, someone showed up to mow Wanda’s grass and found her inside, having been attacked, Mellinger said. Her wounds appeared to have been caused by an edged weapon, such as a machete or a hatchet, although investigators did not find a weapon, he said.

Other evidence was hard to find. Wanda’s home had no electricity, so there was no surveillance footage or cellphone records. Mellinger said Daniel was a suspect early on because of the siblings’ history. One man told deputies he had seen Daniel on his sister’s porch the previous night, about 10 hours before Wanda was discovered, but it wasn’t enough to go on, Mellinger said.

Deputies had even traveled across the state to chase various leads, but in the end, “we had nothing,” Mellinger said.

Then, just before the July 4 holiday, the sheriff’s department was contacted by Wanda’s caseworker, saying she had woken up. Deputies interviewed her shortly afterward, Mellinger said. According to a criminal complaint obtained by WCHS, Wanda said that she remembered being hurt on her head at her home and that it was her brother who did it.

Asked why Daniel would have hurt her, Wanda replied that he was “mean,” WCHS reported, citing the complaint.

Mellinger said he’s unsure whether Wanda will fully recover from the attack. He referred to her waking from the coma after more than two years as a miracle.

“From an investigative standpoint, this is kind of the holy grail,” Mellinger said. “You don’t ever get a chance to talk to somebody once they go into a coma.”



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US

A West Virginia woman woke up from two-year coma — and identifies brother as attacker who nearly killed her, police say

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Wanda Palmer, 51, accused her brother of attacking her at her residence near Cottageville, West Virginia, in June 2020. Police said that Palmer was “attacked, hacked, and left for dead,” according to a statement posted on Jackson County Sheriff’s Department’s Facebook.

Police say they found Palmer in an “upright position” on her couch with severe injuries caused by what appeared to be a hatchet or ax. Jackson County Sheriff Ross Mellinger told CNN that when police arrived, they thought she was dead but realized soon after she was still alive and breathing shallowly.

Police never recovered the weapon, Mellinger said.

One witness reported seeing Palmer’s brother, Daniel, on her porch around midnight the night before she was discovered, Mellinger said. There were no phone records, surveillance footage, or eyewitnesses outside of Palmer’s home, the sheriff said.

Police investigated several people but could never file charges. A couple of weeks ago, Mellinger said, his office got a call from Palmer’s care facility saying she was able to speak to authorities.

Palmer was able to answer only yes-or-no questions but provided enough testimony for police to arrest Daniel, Mellinger told CNN.

Daniel Palmer III, 55, was arrested and charged with attempted murder and malicious wounding on Friday, according to arrest records obtained by CNN.

He was arraigned and assessed with a bond of $500,000, according to the Jackson County sheriff, who said it is unclear how he pleaded. CNN was unable to identify an attorney for him but has reached out to the Jackson County Public Defender’s office.

Wanda Palmer is now coherent but unable to hold full-length conversations, the Jackson County sheriff told CNN.

CNN’s Zoe Sottile contributed to this report.

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Science

How (and When) to Watch the Massive K2 Comet Pass Earth

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Photo: Jim Cumming (Shutterstock)

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What is K2?

The comet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS)—or “K2″ for short—was first spotted five years ago, in May 2017 by the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA reports. The agency shared an image of the comet taken on June 20th, 2022, when it was (relatively) near open star cluster IC 4665 and bright star Beta Ophiuchi, near a starry edge of the Milky Way.

This is the first time the K2 comet has made its way to the inner Solar System from the dim and distant Oort cloud, NASA explains. When it was first observed in May 2017, it was the most distant active inbound comet ever discovered—roughly 2.4 billion kilometers from the Sun, between the orbital distances of Uranus and Saturn.

How big is K2?

When the K2 comet first became visible on the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists estimated that it had a nucleus nearly 11 miles in diameter. But according to research from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, the comet’s nucleus is estimated to have a radius between nine and 50 miles. Either way, it’s pretty damn big.

And that’s not counting the size of K2’s tail—the trail of gasses and dust behind the comet—also known as a “coma.” According to early estimates, K2’s tail is anywhere between 81,000 and 500,000 miles across. For some perspective, that’s somewhere between the width of one and six Jupiters.

When will K2 be visible?

Your best chance of seeing the K2 comet will be the night of July 14th, which is when it will make its closest approach to Earth. Even though it’s huge, you’ll likely need at least a small telescope to spot the comet. Look for a fuzzy patch of light (which is the tail).

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If you’d prefer to watch the comet pass Earth from the comfort of your own home, the Virtual Telescope Project will be live-streaming it starting at 6.15 pm on July 14. But don’t worry too much if you miss K2 on the 14th—it should be visible with a telescope until September.

The closest it will get to the Sun will be in December.

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Science

Planets of Dusk and Dawn, a Lunar Eclipse, and the Coma Star Cluster

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What’s Up for May? The planets of dusk and dawn, a lunar eclipse, and the Coma star cluster.

Sky chart showing Mercury low in the western sky on May 2, accompanied by the crescent moon and bright star Aldebaran. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

May begins and ends with a couple of great planet-spotting opportunities. On May 2nd, look to the west about 45 minutes after sunset to find Mercury about 10 degrees off the horizon, accompanied by a slim crescent moon. Just to the south of the Moon is brilliant red giant star Aldebaran, which should be roughly the same brightness as Mercury. (And by the way, this is the only chance to spot a naked-eye planet in the early evening until August.)

Sky chart showing how Jupiter and Mars will appear extremely close in the morning sky on May 28-30. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Then in the last week of May, you can watch each morning as

Skywatchers in the Western Hemisphere can look forward to a total lunar eclipse in mid-May. The event will be visible across the Americas, Europe, and Africa – basically anywhere the Moon is above the horizon at the time.

Eclipse visibility map for the May 15-16, 2022 total lunar eclipse. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The visible part of the eclipse begins about 10:30 p.m. U.S. Eastern time on May 15th, with totality starting an hour later and lasting for about an hour and a half. Those in the Eastern U.S. will see the eclipse start with the Moon well above the horizon. For the Central U.S., the eclipse starts about an hour and a half after dark, with the Moon relatively low in the sky. On the West coast of the U.S., the Moon rises with totality beginning or already underway, so you’ll want to find a clear view toward the southeast if viewing from there.

Now, lunar eclipses are the ones that are safe to look at directly with your eyes, binoculars, or a telescope (unlike solar eclipses).

The Moon takes on a dim, reddish hue during the period of totality. Even though the Moon is fully immersed in Earth’s shadow at that time, red wavelengths of sunlight filter through Earth’s atmosphere and fall onto the Moon’s surface. One way to think of this is that a total lunar eclipse shows us a projection of all the sunrises and sunsets happening on the planet at that moment.

So check your local details for this eclipse, and find lots more eclipse info from

Sky chart showing where to find the Coma star cluster in May. The cluster is about 6° wide, and is located about 15° east of the hindquarters of Leo, the lion constellation, which is found high overhead in the south. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The Coma star cluster is located about 300 light-years away, making it the second-closest open cluster to Earth after the Hyades cluster in Taurus.

To find the Coma star cluster, look southward for the constellation Leo. It can be easiest to start from the Big Dipper, toward the north, and use the two “pointer stars” on the end which always point you toward Leo. Once you’ve identified Leo, the Coma star cluster is about 15 degrees to the east of the triangle of stars representing the lion’s hindquarters. It’s relatively easy to find with binoculars, even under light-polluted urban skies – as long as it’s clear out.

So here’s wishing you clear skies for finding the Coma star cluster and any other wonders you discover in the night sky in May.



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