Star profile
Iota Herculis
Variable starWhat is Iota Herculis
One of the most thoroughly studied pulsating stars in Hercules: a blue-white B3 IV that beats in two distinct modes at once — the rapid drum of Beta Cephei variables and the slower swell of slowly pulsating B stars. That double personality has turned it into an asteroseismology laboratory, the discipline that listens to a star's interior the way a stethoscope listens to a heart. Bound to an unseen companion that orbits it every 111 days, its blue light takes about 455 years to reach us.
Where it is and when to see it
Iota 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 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.
It opens in your browser. Free, no account, nothing to install.
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
If you don't have an account yet, we'll ask for an email to confirm it's you: we send you a link and that's it, no password.
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 Iota Herculis
- Constellation
- Hercules
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.82
- Distance
- 455.0 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 264.866° · Dec 46.006°
- Catalogue
- HIP 86414 · HD 160762
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
- Eta Herculis3.48
- Xi Herculis3.70
- Gamma Herculis3.74
- Omicron Herculis3.84
- 109 Herculis3.85