not known whom the constellation represented, but that it was known that it did not represent Hercules.
The faint stars in this region of the sky, according to the ancients, represented a meadow, where a shepherd pastured his flock, and the long rows of stars in Hercules and Serpens are fences protecting the sheep from the hyenas and jackals that are supposed to be prowling about. The other side of the meadow is protected by the shepherd's two dogs, the stars α Herculis and α Ophiuchi representing the dogs. To the early Christians Hercules represented the Three Wise Men of the East, and more appropriately Samson.
α Herculis, or Ras Algethi, the Arab name, meaning the head of the kneeler, is a beautiful double star, with a fine contrast of colours in its orange red and bluish green stars. Its variability was discovered by Sir Wm. Herschel in 1795. It is one of the most noted of Secchi's third type with banded spectra. The Chinese called it "the Emperor's Throne."
λ Herculis is noteworthy as marking the approximate objective point, according to Sir Wm. Herschel, of our solar system, the so-called Apex of the Sun's Way, whither we are speeding at the rate of from 7½ to 11½ miles a second. More recent observations show that the goal of our system is situated in the vicinity of the star Vega in the constellation Lyra.
Hercules is remarkable for containing a wonderful star cluster, situated between the stars ξ and η. Halley discovered it in 1714, and thought it a nebula, and "Halley's nebula" was its early title. It can only be resolved in large telescopes. Harvard observers have counted as many as 724 stars outside of the nucleus in this wonderful cluster. It is visible to the naked eye on a clear night, and is considered the finest cluster in the northern heavens, although in a small telescope it does not compare in beauty with the beautiful clusters in Perseus, Gemini, and Sagittarius.[1]
- ↑ Concerning this wonderful object Serviss writes: "You must go to the southern hemisphere to find its match anywhere in the sky.
