Star profile
Zeta Herculis
Nearby starWhat is Zeta Herculis
Zeta Herculis shines from just 35 light-years away, a luminous neighbour at the heart of the celestial Hero. Yellow-white like a Sun grown slightly older, its light reaches us across a distance a photon crosses in barely three and a half decades. To watch it is to look upon one of the rare bright stars close enough that the cosmos, for a moment, feels like a neighbourhood.
Where it is and when to see it
Zeta Herculis lies in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is May, when it culminates around midnight.
- From London it culminates about 70° above the horizon.
- From New York it culminates about 81° above the horizon.
- From Sydney it culminates about 24° above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere north of 58° S.
It ranks no. 3 in brightness among the 136 stars of Hercules in our catalogue. To find it, start from Kornephoros, the brightest: it lies about 10° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 35 years ago.
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A public signature from a real person. The chosen name is a symbolic denomination within Stelvia, with no official standing or IAU recognition: the sky is not for sale and belongs to no one.
Astronomical data for Zeta Herculis
- Constellation
- Hercules
- Apparent magnitude
- 2.81
- Distance
- 35.0 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 250.322° · Dec 31.603°
- Catalogue
- HIP 81693 · HD 150680
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Other stars in Hercules
Hercules has 136 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- KornephorosBeta Herculis2.78
- RasalgethiAlpha 1 Herculis2.78
- SarinDelta Herculis3.12
- Pi Herculis3.16
- Mu Herculis3.42
- Eta Herculis3.48
- Xi Herculis3.70
- Gamma Herculis3.74