Hercules isn't bright, but has a great story
As I told you last week, even though we're cruising to autumn at a rapid pace, there are still many summer constellations in the night sky, especially in the western half of the celestial dome. One of them is Hercules. It's certainly not one of the brighter constellations but it's got a great story.
Hercules is supposed to outline the figure of a mighty hero in Greek mythology but to me looks more like a giant fancy handwritten capital "H" (for Hercules) hanging diagonally in the high western skies.
As soon as it's dark enough, about 8:30 p.m., look for a very bright star nearly overhead. That is Vega in the constellation Lyra the Lyre. About 15 to 20 degrees below Vega in the high western sky (or about two of your fist-widths at arm's length), look for four moderately bright stars that form a trapezoid. You should be able to see it unless there's really a lot of light pollution where you are. That trapezoid is in the center of Hercules right about where you'd join to two sides of the "H".
The most significant part of Hercules is on the lower right hand side of the trapezoid. That's where you'll find one of the jewels of the sky, the great Hercules cluster.
If you're stargazing way out in the dark skies 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 hundreds of thousands of stars crammed in an area a little over 800 trillion miles wide. Through even a moderate telescope you can see some 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 get use to the darkness of the field.
In Greek mythology, Hercules was all muscle but he also had a big heart, well at least for most of his life. When he was 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 quickly 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 and temporary loss of his sanity. Nonetheless, Hercules had to be punished, so Eurystheus assigned Hercules to twelve 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 kings of all beasts. Using all his strength and brains, he slayed the monster lion and went on to complete all his other labors. Zeus, the king of the gods and all his buddies on Mount Olympus rewarded him at the time of his death for all his great work by placing his body in the heaven 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.
Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and author of the book, "Pennsylvania Starwatch," available at bookstores and at his Web site www.lynchandthestars.com.
