Even though we’re in the closing weeks of summer, the great but faint constellation Hercules the hero is hanging in there, upside down high in the early evening western sky. It’s certainly not the brightest of constellations over Pottsville, but Hercules the Hero is one of my favorites, mainly because of its great story and a great star cluster that lies within it. Hercules is supposed to outline the figure of a mighty hero in Greek mythology, but to me it looks more like a giant fancy handwritten capital “H” (for Hercules).
It’s pretty easy to see. Face west and look for the brightest star you can see close to the overhead zenith. That’s the star Vega, one of the brightest stars in the early evening sky right now. Look for four moderately bright stars that form a diagonally orientated trapezoid. You should be able to see it unless there’s a lot of light pollution where you are. That trapezoid is in the center of Hercules right about where you’d join the two sides of the “H.”
The most significant part of Hercules is on the southwest or lower right-hand side of the trapezoid. That’s where you’ll find one of the jewels of the sky, the great Hercules cluster, astronomically known as Messier object 13, or M13 for short.
If you’re stargazing in the dark skies way out in the boonies, you may see a faint smudge with your naked eye, but with a good pair of binoculars or even better, a telescope, you’ll see a really gorgeous spherical cluster of stars, known as a globular cluster. This is the best one in our skies.
Astronomers figure it’s about 25,000 light years away, which equals about 145,000 trillion miles. There are nearly a million stars crammed in an area that’s a little more than 800 trillion miles wide. Through even a moderate telescope, you can see some of the individual stars at the edge. As it is with all telescopic objects though, look at the cluster for extended periods of time through the eyepiece of your scope to let your eyes adjust to the darkness of the field.
In Greek mythology, Hercules was all muscle, but he also had a big heart, at least for most of his life. When he was a teenager he fell in love with the beautiful but conniving Princess Megara. They were married soon after they met but the honeymoon didn’t last very long. Arguments between them were easy to come by and it seemed to Hercules that there was nothing he could do to please her. She picked and picked at him until Hercules blew his stack and temporarily lost his sanity. With his mighty hand he choked Princess Megara and all her attendants.
Immediately after the murders, Hercules came to his senses and realized the extent of his horrible deeds. He was beyond sick with guilt and shame and turned himself in, leaving his fate up to Eurystheus, the king of Mycenae. The wise and just king was totally devastated with the loss of his daughter Megara, but accepted that his son-in-law was truly sorry for his crime. Nonetheless Hercules had to be punished, so Eurystheus assigned Hercules to 12 great labors that he had to perform to atone for his crime.
The first of his tasks was to slay Leo the Lion, the king of the kings of all beasts. Using all of his strength and brains, he slayed the monster lion and went on to complete all of his other labors. Zeus, the king of the gods, and his buddies on Mount Olympus rewarded Hercules at the time of his death for his great work by placing his body in the heavens as the constellation we see through the summer and early fall.
They didn’t want Hercules to receive full honors, though, because of his murder conviction, so they hung his body upside down in the heavens.
Leo the mighty lion also earned a place among the stars. Unfortunately, this late in the summer, Leo is already below the horizon by the time twilight ends, but it is one of those few constellations that really resembles what its supposed to be.
Again, even if you have a small telescope check out one of the summer jewels of the sky, the globular cluster M13. It’s so special! For extra credit, train your telescope a little more than five degrees, or about half the width of your fist held at arm’s length, straight above M13 and you have a good chance of finding another globular cluster, M92. It’s not quite as bright and big as M13 but it’s still very nice.
(Lynch, an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist, can be reached at mikewlynch@comcast.net)
