1.7 KiB
| name | created_by | created_date | updated_by | updated_date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hercules | skybber | 2021-06-26 08:45:02.834564 | skybber | 2021-06-26 08:45:02.834814 |
A large constellation of the northern sky typical of summer evenings, the northern part of which is circumpolar in our latitudes. Hercules is found roughly in a triangle, the vertices of which are Vega of Lyra, Ras Alhague of Hadonos, and Gemma of the Northern Crown. In the eastern part of the constellation, towards the star ν Her, is the apex - the point to which the Sun approaches in relation to the surrounding stars. It was discovered in 1783 by William Herschel on a relatively small set of stars. The speed at which the Sun moves towards the apex relative to the surrounding stars is nearly 20 km/s.
Hercules occupies an impressive area of the sky and, despite the fact that it doesn't have a single bright star, it is quite striking. The body of Hercules is marked by four stars: ε, ζ, η and π Hercules, which form a quadrilateral called a "flowerpot". From it, then, the individual chains of stars radiate out to the southwest and southeast, as well as to the northwest and northeast. On the western side of the flowerpot, at about 2/3 of the distance between ζ and η Hercules, lies the brightest globular cluster in the northern sky, M13, visible to the naked eye under favourable conditions. Also worthy of attention are another globular cluster, M92, and the pretty blue-green planetary NGC 6210, several colourful binaries and many galaxies, most of which belong to the outlying Hercules galaxy cluster designated C1 0024 - 1654. It is the densest known cluster, with up to 70 galaxies per square degree in its central regions.
