Hercules

Hercules is a large northern constellation, culminating at midnight in May. It has the fifth largest area of all the constellations. Hercules was one of the 48 constellations listed by the second-century astronomer Ptolemy.

Despite this, it covers a rather dark area of the sky and has only two stars brighter than third magnitude. It is best known for its deep sky offerings, which include M13, often known as the ‘Great Globular Cluster in Hercules’. M13 is the brightest globular cluster to lie at a high northern declination. It is also home to another bright globular cluster, M92, as well as the much fainter cluster NGC 6229.

The name ‘Hercules’ is Latinised name for the Greek hero Heracles. The constellation is probably much older than any association with Hercules: in the third century BC, Aratus referred to the constellation as depicting a nameless man, but a century later, Eratosthenes identified him as Heracles.

According to the Greeks, Hercules was the son of Zeus and Alcmene. He was the favorite son of Zeus, who had made special preparations for Hercules’ birth so that he would be the mightiest of all the heroes. In keeping with this plan, Hercules would spend the first part of his life living among, and even serving, mortals. He would learn how they lived and what was important in their lives. Then, he would be brought up to Mount Olympus to join the Olympians there, and having lived among the mortals, could help the gods in their discussions and plans. Hercules was known for his great strength, courage, and agility. He was also known for his Twelve Labors, which he undertook as a result of Hera’s scheming. Hera tried many times to get Hercules to fail at some task, and as a result, fall out of favor with his father Zeus. However, Hercules not only completed these twelve tasks, but did them in such a way as to win even more favor from his father, and at the same time make Hera look bad. In addition to these famous Twelve Labors, he also sailed with Jason and the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece, took part in the war between the gods and the giants, and still had time to sack Troy. Zeus commemorated all the mighty acts of Hercules by placing his constellation in a very prominent place in the sky.

The figure is usually drawn with his foot on the head of the dragon Draco, which is appropriate as one of the labors of Hercules was to slay the dragon which guarded the golden apples which grew in the garden of Hera.

In the Indian name for constellations, Hercules is called ಭೀಮ (Bheema) named after the warrior and one among the Pandava brothers in the epic Mahabharata.

Hercules contains:

 

• Stars
  • Kornephoros (mag 2.8)
  • ζ-Her (mag 2.9)
  • Sarin (mag 3.1)
  • π-Her (mag 3.1)
  • Rasalgethi (mag 3.3)
  • μ-Her (mag 3.4)
  • η-Her (mag 3.5)
  • ξ-Her (mag 3.7)
  • γ-Her (mag 3.7)
  • ι-Her (mag 3.8)
  • O-Her (mag 3.8)
  • θ-Her (mag 3.8)
  • 109-Her (mag 3.9)
  • τ-Her (mag 3.9)
  • ε-Her (mag 3.9)
  • σ-Her (mag 4.2)
  • 110-Her (mag 4.2)
  • φ-Her (mag 4.2)
  • 102-Her (mag 4.3)
  • 111-Her (mag 4.3)
  • Maasym (mag 4.4)
  • ν-Her (mag 4.4)
  • HD (mag 4.5)
  • ρ-Her (mag 4.5)
  • ω-Her (mag 4.6)
• Open Clusters
  • IC 1277 (mag 15.0)
  • IC 4648
  • IC 1285
  • IC 1273
  • IC 1272
• Globular Clusters
  • Messier 13 (mag 5.8)
  • Messier 92 (mag 6.5)
  • NGC 6229 (mag 9.9)
• Galaxy
  • NGC 6482 (mag 11.4)
  • NGC 6207 (mag 11.7)
  • NGC 6166 (mag 11.8)
  • NGC 6181 (mag 11.9)
  • NGC 6661 (mag 11.9)
  • NGC 6574 (mag 12.0)
  • NGC 6674 (mag 12.1)
  • NGC 6587 (mag 12.1)
  • NGC 6162 (mag 12.2)
  • NGC 6106 (mag 12.2)
  • NGC 6501 (mag 12.3)
  • NGC 6389 (mag 12.4)
  • NGC 6239 (mag 12.4)
  • NGC 6500 (mag 12.5)
  • NGC 6555 (mag 12.7)
  • IC 4615 (mag 12.8)
  • NGC 6599 (mag 12.8)
  • NGC 6658 (mag 12.9)
  • NGC 6550 (mag 13.1)
  • NGC 6632 (mag 13.2)
  • NGC 6627 (mag 13.2)
  • NGC 6155 (mag 13.2)
  • NGC 6028 (mag 13.2)
  • IC 1269 (mag 13.2)
  • NGC 6315 (mag 13.3)