Hercules

Hercules is a constellation named after Hercules, the Roman mythological hero adapted from the Greek hero Heracles. Hercules was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations today. It is the fifth largest of the modern constellations. ... Stars. Hercules has ... several stars above magnitude 4. Alpha Herculis, traditionally called Rasalgethi, is a binary star ... The primary is an irregular variable star; it is a red giant with a minimum magnitude of 4 and a maximum magnitude of 3. ... The secondary, which orbits every 3600 years, is a blue-green hued star of magnitude 5.4. Its common name means "the kneeler's head". Beta Herculis, also called Kornephoros, is the brightest star in Hercules. It is a yellow giant of magnitude 2.8, 148 light-years from Earth. Its traditional name means "club-bearer". Delta Herculis is a double star ... The primary is a blue-white star of magnitude 3.1,and is 78 light-years from Earth. The optical companion is of magnitude 8.2. Gamma Herculis is also a double star ... The primary is a white giant of magnitude 3.8, 195 light-years from Earth. The optical companion, widely separated, is 10th magnitude. Zeta Herculis is a binary star ... The system, 35 light-years from Earth, has a period of 34.5 years. The primary is a yellow-tinged star of magnitude 2.9 and the secondary is an orange star of magnitude 5.7. There are several dimmer variable stars in Hercules. 30 Herculis, also called g Herculis, is a semiregular red giant with a period of 3 months. 361 light-years from Earth, it has a minimum magnitude of 6.3 and a maximum magnitude of 4.3. 68 Herculis, also called u Herculis, is a Beta Lyrae-type eclipsing binary star. 865 light-years from Earth, it has a period of 2 days; its minimum magnitude is 5.4 and its maximum magnitude is 4.7. Hercules is also home to many double stars and binary stars. Kappa Herculis is a double star... The primary is a yellow giant of magnitude 5.0, 388 light-years from Earth; the secondary is an orange giant of magnitude 6.3, 470 light-years from Earth. Rho Herculis is a binary star 402 light-years from Earth... Both components are blue-green giant stars; the primary is magnitude 4.5 and the secondary is magnitude 5.5. 95 Herculis is a binary star ... 470 light-years from Earth. The primary is a silvery giant star of magnitude 4.9 and the secondary is an old giant star of magnitude 5.2. 100 Herculis is a double star... Both components are magnitude 5.8 blue-white stars; they are 165 and 230 light-years from Earth. Mu Herculis is 27.4 light-years from Earth. The solar apex, i.e., the point on the sky which marks the direction that the Sun is moving in its orbit around the center of the Milky Way, is located within Hercules, close to Vega in neighboring Lyra. ... Deep-sky objects. Hercules contains two bright globular clusters: M13, the brightest globular cluster in the northern hemisphere, and M92. It also contains the nearly spherical planetary nebula Abell 39. M13 lies between the stars η Her and ζ Her; it is dim, but may be detected by the unaided eye on a very clear night. ... M92 is a globular cluster of magnitude 6.4, 26,000 light-years from earth. ... NGC 6229 is a dimmer globular cluster, with a magnitude of 9.4, it is the third-brightest globular in the constellation. ... NGC 6210 is a planetary nebula of the 9th magnitude, 4000 light-years from Earth ... The Hercules Cluster (Abell 2151) is a cluster of galaxies in Hercules. The Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall, the largest structure in the universe, is in Hercules. [Hercules (constellation). Wikipedia]