An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
English-French-Persian

An ancient → constellation (right ascension about 17h, declination 30° north), one of the largest in the sky, which is located between → Lyra and → Corona Borealis. It is traditionally depicted as the hero Hercules in a kneeling position. There are no very bright stars in Hercules, the brightest one is → Rasalgethi, a variable → red supergiant of magnitude about 3.5. Abbreviation: Her; Genitive: Herculis.
See also: → Hercules cluster.

L. Hercules, from Gk. Heracles "glory of Hera," the most popular hero of Gk. mythology, son of Zeus and the woman Alcmena, who the god seduced in the shape of her husband Amphitryon, king of Thebes.

Herâkles, as above; Herkul, from Fr. Hercule, as above; Arabicized name of the constellation: هرقل. Other Ar. renderings: (al-jâthi, jâthi 'alâ rukbataihi (الجاثی، الجاثی علی‌رکبتیه) "the kneeling one," râqes (راقص) "the dancing one."
Bar zânu nešasté "the kneeling one," Pers. descriptive rendering of the Gk. mythological figure, by the famous 11-th century astronomer Biruni.

A small, irregular → cluster of galaxies with fewer than 100 galaxies in its core. It has no strongly dominant central galaxy and is notable for the high proportion of spirals. It lies some 500 million → light-years away in the constellation → Hercules; also known as Abell 2151.

→ Hercules; → cluster.