In classical mythology Corona Borealis generally represented the crown given by the god Dionysus to the Cretan princess Ariadne and set by her in the heavens.

Abell 2065 is a highly concentrated galaxy cluster one billion light-years from the Solar System containing more than 400 members, and is itself part of the larger Corona Borealis Supercluster.

[6] The official constellation boundaries, as set by Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte in 1930, are defined by a polygon of eight segments (illustrated in infobox).

[b][5] Alpha Coronae Borealis (officially named Alphecca by the IAU, but sometimes also known as Gemma) appears as a blue-white star of magnitude 2.2.

[15] Lying 75±0.5 light-years from Earth,[16] Alphecca is believed to be a member of the Ursa Major Moving Group of stars that have a common motion through space.

[17] Located 112±3 light-years away,[16] Beta Coronae Borealis or Nusakan is a spectroscopic binary system whose two components are separated by 10 AU and orbit each other every 10.5 years.

[20] Near Nusakan is Theta Coronae Borealis, a binary system that shines with a combined magnitude of 4.13 located 380±20 light-years distant.

[16] The brighter component, Theta Coronae Borealis A, is a blue-white star that spins extremely rapidly—at a rate of around 393 km per second.

[21] Flanking Alpha to the east is Gamma Coronae Borealis, yet another binary star system, whose components orbit each other every 92.94 years and are roughly as far apart from each other as the Sun and Neptune.

It has a surface temperature of 5180 K.[25] For most of its existence, Delta Coronae Borealis was a blue-white main-sequence star of spectral type B before it ran out of hydrogen fuel in its core.

[26] Zeta Coronae Borealis is a double star with two blue-white components 6.3 arcseconds apart that can be readily separated at 100x magnification.

[27] Nu Coronae Borealis is an optical double, whose components are a similar distance from Earth but have different radial velocities, hence are assumed to be unrelated.

[16][30] Sigma Coronae Borealis, on the other hand, is a true multiple star system divisible by small amateur telescopes.

[41] Located around 1946 light-years distant, it shines with a luminosity 16,643 times that of the Sun and has a surface temperature of 3033 K.[42] One of the reddest stars in the sky,[33] V Coronae Borealis is a cool star with a surface temperature of 2877 K that shines with a luminosity 102,831 times that of the Sun and is a remote 8810 light-years distant from Earth.

[44] Another red giant, RR Coronae Borealis is a M3-type semiregular variable star that varies between magnitudes 7.3 and 8.2 over 60.8 days.

The spectrum of Epsilon Coronae Borealis was analysed for seven years from 2005 to 2012, revealing a planet around 6.7 times as massive as Jupiter (MJ) orbiting every 418 days at an average distance of around 1.3 AU.

[52] Kappa Coronae Borealis is a spectral type K1IV orange subgiant nearly twice as massive as the Sun; around it lies a dust debris disk,[14] and one planet with a period of 3.4 years.

[55] XO-1 is a magnitude 11 yellow main-sequence star located approximately 560 light-years away,[56] of spectral type G1V with a mass and radius similar to the Sun.

[57] The discovery of a Jupiter-sized planetary companion was announced in 1997 via analysis of the radial velocity of Rho Coronae Borealis, a yellow main sequence star and Solar analog of spectral type G0V,[58] around 57 light-years distant from Earth.

[59] More accurate measurement of data from the Hipparcos satellite subsequently showed it instead to be a low-mass star somewhere between 100 and 200 times the mass of Jupiter.

[62] No planet has been found, but a brown dwarf companion about 63 times as massive as Jupiter with a spectral type of L8 was discovered at a distance of 3640 AU from the pair in 2001.

It was generally considered to represent a crown given by Dionysus to Ariadne, the daughter of Minos of Crete, after she had been abandoned by the Athenian prince Theseus.

De astronomia, attributed to Hyginus, linked it to a crown or wreath worn by Bacchus (Dionysus) to disguise his appearance when first approaching Mount Olympus and revealing himself to the gods, having been previously hidden as yet another child of Jupiter's trysts with a mortal, in this case Semele.

[77] The constellation also symbolised the smokehole over a fireplace, which conveyed their messages to the gods, as well as how chiefs should come together to consider matters of importance.

[75] The Mi'kmaq of eastern Canada saw Corona Borealis as Mskegwǒm, the den of the celestial bear (Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta Ursae Majoris).

The constellation was likely called Kaua-mea in Hawaii, Rangawhenua in New Zealand, and Te Wale-o-Awitu in the Cook Islands atoll of Pukapuka.