Constellation Chart

Hercules

The Hercules is a fairly large constellation in summer, but isn't very obvious. "Hercules" is a name of Greek hero, and the constellation is represented as a kneeling man with his head turning south. Though the constellation is faint, a fairly strained shape of "H" that forms Hercules' body is a good mark to find that. Alpha Herculis, Ras Algethi, is positioned at the kneeler's head has a magnitude of 3, ancient Chinese had regarded the star as the Emperor's seat, and they had observed this field very carefully whether there was any novae or comets.

Galaxies in Hercules

M13 (NGC6205)

M13 (NGC6205) is a spectacular globular cluster known as "The Hercules Cluster". It's universally acclaimed as the best globular in the Northern Hemisphere, lies on a line between eta Herculis and zeta Herculis. The cluster has a size of about 10 arc minutes and about over 100 thousand fine stars, 22 thousand light years away.

Usual nebulae and star clusters in our Galaxy are distributed in the disk being spiral structure. However, almost all of globular clusters, including M13, don't obey this rule, they equally distribute in the gigantic sphere region called "Halo" that encloses whole the Galaxy. Stars included in the globular clusters are very old normally over 10 billion years, about equal with the Galaxy itself. So the globular cluster should be one of the most important objects to research for origin of formation of the Galaxy.

M92 (NGC6341)

M92 (NGC6341) is a medium-sized globular cluster lies on a line between eta and iota Herculis. The cluster is much smaller than M13, The Hercules Cluster, but has a brighter nucleus than the representative globular cluster in summer skies, can easily be detected by binoculars. You'll be able to appreciate M92 like a dimmed nebula with ellipse shape, should need a telescope larger than 20cm(7.8") to resolve individual stars. The cluster has a diameter of 8.3 arc minute and a distance of about 36 thousand light years.

Planetary Destinations In Hercules

14 Herculis

Parent Star: 14 Herculis (KO V) in the constellation of Hercules is located at a distance of 18.15 Parsecs from our sun. Co-ordinates of Right Ascension: 16 10 23.59 & Declination: +43 49 18.2 . The apparent Magnitude of the star is 6.67. orbiting around 14 Herculis is planet HD 312240b the planet is believed to be a ammonia cloud Jovian, and its exitence has been confirmed.

HD 149026

Parent Star: HD 149026 (G0 IV) in the constellation of Hercules is located at a distance of 257.34 Light Years from our Solar system Co-ordinates of Right Ascension: 16 30 29.6 & Declination: +38 20 50.3. The apparent Magnitude of the star is 8.15. orbiting around HD 149026 is planet HD 149026 b the planet is believed to be a cloudy hot Jupiter and its exitence has been confirmed. The Planets Appearance is Silicate clouds over dark sodium haze . The planet Orbits around the star every 2.8766 ± 0.001 Days .