Star profile
Nu Herculis
Variable starWhat is Nu Herculis
Nu Herculis is a rare yellow-white F2 bright giant, a pulsating variable shining almost a thousand times more than the Sun, 860 light-years away. It shares its system with a companion barely half an arcsecond apart, a pair only the largest telescopes can resolve. It belongs to the body of Hercules, that hero kneeling upside-down across the northern summer sky.
Where it is and when to see it
Nu 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.
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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 Nu Herculis
- Constellation
- Hercules
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.41
- Distance
- 860.7 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 269.626° · Dec 30.189°
- Catalogue
- HIP 87998 · HD 164136
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
- 111 Herculis4.34
- 102 Herculis4.37
- MaasymLambda Herculis4.41
- CujamOmega Herculis4.57
- 113 Herculis4.57