Star profile
Maasym
Lambda Herculis · Hercules
What is Maasym
Maasym comes from the Arabic «al-miʿṣam», «the wrist», the joint that holds the club in the mythical figure of Hercules, the hero always portrayed with his twelve labours unfolding across the northern sky. It is an orange giant 369 light-years away, swollen by advanced stellar old age and considerably cooler than the Sun despite its brightness. When this light set out, the newly invented pendulum clocks were marking seconds with precision for the first time in the courts of Europe.
Where it is and when to see it
Maasym lies in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is June: 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 Maasym
- Constellation
- Hercules
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.41
- Distance
- 369.4 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 262.685° · Dec 26.111°
- Catalogue
- HIP 85693 · HD 158899
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
- 95 Herculis4.26
- 111 Herculis4.34
- 102 Herculis4.37
- Nu Herculis4.41
- CujamOmega Herculis4.57