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Hercules Constellation:

In Depth

By: Jake Baker

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Many people may be familiar with Hercules from the Disney movie entitled “Hercules”.

However, Hercules dates back far before the Disney fame He was in fact a Greek God; he was

the son of Zeus. (NOIRLab) Hercules’ mother did not like him, or treat him fairly. This made

Hercules quite angry, which led him to harm many of those he loved. As punishment, he was

commanded by King Eurystheus (King of the Tiryns) to perform twelve nearly impossible tasks

that would redeem him. (NOIRLab)

These tasks made Hercules one of the most famous and noted Greek Gods. The twelve

tasks were as follows:

First on his journey was the task of killing the Nemean Lion. (Infoplease Staff) Why was

this so difficult? The lion’s skin was so tough that weapons like swords and arrows were not able

to pierce through it. Hercules had to defeat the lion by hitting it on the head with his wooden

club, then using his hands to strangle it. He then used the razor-sharp claws to skin it, and he

wore the fur every day for the rest of his days.(Infoplease Staff)

The second task was to Kill the Lernaean Hydra. This was a vicious nine-headed snake

that would regenerate its heads. If one was cut, two more would take its place. (Infoplease Staff)

Since trying to slay the beast would become more and more difficult, Hercules got some help

from his chariot driver who, after each head was cut off, would approach the beast with torch in

hand to sear the wounds, preventing any heads from growing back. (Infoplease Staff)

The third task was to capture the Ceryneian Hind, which was a deer with golden horns.

(Infoplease Staff) The deer was a beloved pet of the goddess Artemis, so Hercules had to be

careful snatching it from her without her noticing. (Infoplease Staff)

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The fourth task was to capture the Erymanthian Boar, which was a very feared,

murderous boar. He captured it by catching it in a net and bringing it to king of Tiryns.

(Infoplease Staff)

Hercules’ fifth task was to clean the Augean stables. Seems simple enough right? Well,

this stable had thousands of cows that haven’t been cleaned in 30 years, and he was tasked with

cleaning them all in one single day. (Infoplease Staff) Hercules achieved this task by changing

the direction of two rivers towards the stalls to clean all of the cows. (Infoplease Staff)

His sixth task was to kill the Stymphalian birds. These birds had razor-sharp claws and

beaks. Their feathers were said to be as piercing as darts. (Infoplease Staff) He was able to defeat

them by scaring them into the air and finishing them off with some poisonous darts he created.

(Infoplease Staff)

The seventh task was to capture the Cretan Bull. This legendary bull “was said to be

insane and breathe fire.” (Infoplease Staff) Hercules had to take another wrestling approach to

this task by tackling the bull to the ground, to then bring it back to its owner, King Minos.

(Infoplease Staff)

The eighth nearly impossible feat was to capture the horses of Diomedes. This was an

extremely difficult task, because the owner of the horses was very bloodthirsty and feed human

flesh to his horses. (Infoplease Staff) Hercules killed Diomedes and fed him to his own horses,

which made the horses become calm. (Infoplease Staff)

The ninth task was to Take the Girdle of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. It is said that

“queen Hippolyta (or Hippolyte) welcomed him and agreed to give him her girdle for
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Eurystheus's daughter.” (Infoplease Staff) Hippolyta then spread a lie that Hercules was an

enemy to the Amazons land. He then had to overcome the people and take a golden belt.

The tenth task was to capture the Cattle of Geryon. This was a monster with giant wings

and what looked to be a body of three humans. (Infoplease Staff) He was very proud of his heard

of red cattle, and protected them with his two headed dog. Hercules had to kill both Geryon and

his two headed dog to obtain the cattle. (Infoplease Staff)

The eleventh insurmountable task was to take the golden apples of the Hesperides. The

apples were in a garden, and protected by a dragon with 100 heads. (Infoplease Staff) To

overcome this obstacle, Hercules made a deal with Atlas (another Greek God wo was burdened

to hold up the skies forever) that he would hold up the skies if Atlas would go and grab the

apples, which he did. (Infoplease Staff)

The twelfth and final task was to capture Cerberus. Cerberus was a three headed dog, that

Hercules was tasked with capturing without using weapons, or bringing harm to the dog.

(Infoplease Staff) Again, like he has in the past, he wrestled them to the ground to defeat it.

(Infoplease Staff)

The constellation resides in the third quadrant of the Northern Hemisphere, (Constellation

Guide) and is visible with the unassisted human eye from earth. Its right ascension is 17ͪ, with its

declination being +30° (Wikipedia) It also is the fifth largest constellation covering a total area

of 1225 square degrees in our sky. (Constellation Guide) The shape is of Hercules is most often

him conquering one of his twelve quests mentioned above. Whether that be defeating a beastly

lion, or tangling with a deadly serpent.

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(Urban Threads)
Below is a list of the 20 brightest constellations in Hercules. Beta Herculis is the biggest

star in the constellation. There are no first magnitude stars in this constellation. The closest star

that has a measured distance is Gilese 623. The farthest named star is 89 Herculis. The star that is

most like the sun is HD 164922. The most luminous star is Beta Herculis with a visual

magnitude of 2.78, and the least luminous star is WASP-135 with a visual magnitude of 13.3.

Epsilon Herculis is the hottest star.

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Contained within the Hercules Constellation is the Abell 2199 Galaxy Cluster. It contains
“several large and very distant galaxy clusters” that are all contained within the Hercules
constellation. (StarCounter.com) Below is additional information about Abell 2199 and its
picture:

(StarCounter.com)

Another interesting star in the Hercules constellation is the Planetary Nebula NGC 6210.

In the picture below we can see two very distinct colors. NASA took two different types of

pictures and laid them on top of each other. NASA explained, “The outer, mostly green portion

represents the light of doubly ionized oxygen. The inner portion represents the light of singly and

doubly ionized oxygen in red and green respectively.” (NASA ESA Hubble)
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About the Object

Name: IRAS
16423+2353, NGC
6210
Type: Milky Way :
Nebula : Type :
Planetary
Distance: 6500 light years
Constellation: Hercules
Category: Nebulae

(NASA ESA Hubble)

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Bibliography

Constellation Guide. Hercules Constellation. 2021.

Infoplease Staff. The Twelve Labors of Hercules. 10 03 2021. Website. 15 04 2021.

NASA ESA Hubble. Planetary Nebula NGC 6210. n.d.

NOIRLab. Globe at Night. 2019.

StarCounter.com. Abell 2199 Galaxy Cluster. 08 2013.

Starregistration.net. Hercules Constellation. 2021.

Urban Threads. Stellar Constellations - Hercules. n.d.

Wikipedia. Hercules (constellation). 08 04 2021. 15 04 2021.