Star profile
51 Herculis
What is 51 Herculis
51 Herculis belongs to that crowd of orange stars that yields only to the patient observer. A K-type giant about 698 light-years away, its light departed around the 14th century, while the Black Death was sweeping across Europe. Discreet, cool and golden, it sits in a dense field of stars and is recognised by its warm tone once the eye adapts to the darkness of Hercules.
Where it is and when to see it
51 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 51 Herculis
- Constellation
- Hercules
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.03
- Distance
- 698.5 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 252.939° · Dec 24.656°
- Catalogue
- HIP 82504 · HD 152326
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
- MarsicKappa Herculis5.00
- HIP 887885.00
- HIP 848335.01
- 99 Herculis5.05
- HIP 839475.07