With a little exaggeration, there are more galaxies in the hair of Berenice than stars: wherever you look, the FoV is abound with tiny, faint spots. For me an especially remarkable place is the area bound by NGC 4158, 4216 and 4208. The brightness data of catalogues should be handled with care: almost all of the galaxies are brighter than suggested by the given numbers. The nearly edge-on galaxy of 4216 is the nicest with its brightness of 10m. With a FoV of around 1 degree, 6 beautiful shiny galaxies are glittering together, of which the three brightest must be visible also with smaller scopes.

Large, spectacular spiral galaxy with a gross magnitude of 8.4, two magnificent arms and a very shiny core. Elongated towards N-S, which is also the direction of the two arms. The Southern arm looks brighter, while the Northern one larger and blurred. Only a quarter degrees away you can find its easily detectable companion, the NGC 4248 (12.5m). If you can see this tiny galaxy, you should take the chance to look around the M106 in a radius of 1-2 degrees, and observe the other members of the galaxy-group named after it. Around half a dozen of the smaller galaxies are brighter than 4248, and only a couple are similar or fainter.

A truly gigantic galaxy even with direct vision, many sources indicate a surface brightness of 9.6 magnitudes, however it looks fainter than suggested because of the large surface area. I estimate a core brightness of about 11.3m and the surrounding areas of nearly 13.5m, therefore this may be an achieveable target for smaller aperture telescopes too. The farthest regions pop in and out with direct vision making it look like two laser beams leaving the core. With averted vision these regions show up clearly, and make the apparent size of the galaxy from large to huge! I estimate a dimension of 16' x 2'. This object reminds me of NGC 5907 (Splinter galaxy), however that has no such a sphere-like core.

The gigantic, shiny NGC 4631 (also known as the Whale galaxy) and its smaller and much fainter companion, the NGC 4656 (or Hockeystick galaxy) fit perfectly well in an eyepiece with at least 1 degrees of FoV, a very spectacular double. The 4631 is about 10m bright and just about to jump right out of the eyepiece, while the latter is much smaller with a brightness of about 11m only - estimated by me. Both galaxies are heavily distorted because of gravitational tidal forces between the two, not to mention that there's a tiny faint third companion very near NGC 4631 with the identifier NGC 4627 with a brightness of 13m. This galaxy remained hidden to me at this observing session and I could not make out the real hockey stick shape of NGC 4656 out either, possibly the bad transparency and seeing was not really helping me in this. The pair NGC 4631 and 4627 is also listed in Halton Arp's catalogue with number 281.

If Ursa Major and galaxies, everybody thinks on M81 + 82. However, this constellation is full of spectacular galactic companions. One of them is this pair: interesting to see two such a different galaxies so close to eachother. NGC 4041 is a faint face-on spiral, NGC 4036 is a brighter edge-on elliptical galaxy. The 4041 is especially spectacular because its core brightens up very quickly, so the entire galaxy reminds me of a cosmic fried egg.

A large edge-on spiral with intermediate brightness, highly elongated in the NNE-SSW directions near the famous double, Cor Caroli. It does not show much details like arms or dense spots, however its NNE side looks a little bit brighter and wider, which makes the entire galaxy look a bit asymmetrical. I estimate its average brightness at 12 magnitudes maximum, with an apparent size of 13' x 2'.

A faint, but clearly detectable galaxy of about 12 magnitudes, with a tiny, star-like core. Near this, a faint little star can be noticed that seems to be a supernova, however it is only a bare foreground star. Compared with photographs, it seems that the area seen by me is in fact only the brighter region around the galactic core. The galaxy has even fainter outer territories that cannot be seen visually by me. With these, the area of the galaxy is about twice the size, but for now, I estimate an apparent visual size of about 3.5' x 0.8' only. The foreground star is encircled by the galaxy and it looks as if the latter would be darker around the star. However, this is obviously only an optical illusion. Apart from that, it still shows many details: brighter and darker areas. Because of this, it seems to be an irregular galaxy, yet it is in fact belongs to a rare sub-group of spirals.

A spectacular, faint pair of galaxies on the outer edge of the Virgo-cluster. NGC 4762: looks like a needle, a tiny galaxy with definitely brightening core bulb that's fullfilled in a little star-like core. It's a perfectly edge-on galaxy. NGC 4754: looks smaller and much fainter than its companion. It's a nearly face-on galaxy that looks like a diffuse elliptical galaxy with no details at all, except for the almond-shaped, softly brightening core. To the SW of this pair you may notice a third, even fainter companion galaxy, the NGC 4733 only about one full field of vision away.