Star profile
Eta Herculis
What is Eta Herculis
Eta Herculis marks one corner of the keystone trapezium that forms the body of the hero in the summer sky. A yellow giant, broader and older than the Sun, it lies just over a hundred light-years away. Its warm light, having travelled since Napoleonic times, traces one of four points the ancients called the Falling Keystone, since it tips toward the zenith on the shortest nights of the year.
Where it is and when to see it
Eta 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: the Sun sits at the opposite point of the sky and the star culminates around midnight. How high it climbs above the horizon depends on the latitude you watch from.
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The signature wall
Stelvia's sky works like a signature wall: anyone can leave their name and a message on a real star, and that signature goes up on the map for everyone to read. Signing is free.
A signature without a lock can be replaced by someone else's. The lock makes the signature permanent and lets you choose a symbolic name for the star, always shown next to the star's catalogue identifier. How the lock works
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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 Eta Herculis
- Constellation
- Hercules
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.48
- Distance
- 108.7 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 250.724° · Dec 38.922°
- Catalogue
- HIP 81833 · HD 150997
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
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
- Zeta Herculis2.81
- SarinDelta Herculis3.12
- Pi Herculis3.16
- Mu Herculis3.42
- Xi Herculis3.70
- Gamma Herculis3.74