Hercules

Hercules is a large summer constellation that is not very bright, hosting only six third magnitude stars and it can be somewhat difficult to trace unless the sky is very dark. Note that the photo below is underexposed for natural viewing and it was necessary to artificially brighten the stars that make up the figure. Only one star in Hercules is worthy of a name: Kornephoros, a binary system lying about 139 light years from Earth. This object is a large type G star that has exhausted its hydrogen in the core and is now moving away from the main sequence as it begins to bloat up into a red giant. Kornephoro is currently about 17 times the size of our sun and is shining at about 150 times its luminosity. Hercules is notable for hosting two Messier objects, M92 and M13, the famous Hercules Globular Cluster. Although neither can be seen on the picture below, M13 is a fairly easy sight in modest optical aid, lying about 1/3 of the way between the upper left corner and upper right corner of Hercules' head.