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public  Greenwich, UK Greenwich, UK  ⓘ
TimezoneEurope/London
Sunrise: 5:01 
Transit: 12:56 
Sunset: 20:52
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All Constellations » Hercules » 

τ Herculis (tau Herculis)

Above the horizon.  Circumpolar today
Alt: 35.02°   Az: 302.42°   Direction: West-North-West

τ Herculis is a variable and double sub-giant star of spectral class B5 in the constellation of Hercules.

τ Herculis visual magnitude is 3.89. Because of its moderate brightness, τ Herculis is easily visible to the naked eye from locations with dark skies, while it might be barely visible, or not visible at all, from light-polluted skies.

Image of τ Herculis (tau Herculis) star
DSS2 image of τ Herculis. The red arrow shows the motion of τ Herculis during the next 10000 years (-1.83 arcmin in Right Ascension and 6.67 arcmin in declination);

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

16h 20m 30s
+46° 15’ 13”
05h 55m 23s
22h 15m 53s

J2000

16h 19m 44s
+46° 18’ 47”

Galactic Coordinates

72.48°
45.04°

Finder Chart

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Finder chart for τ Herculis (tau Herculis).

Magnitude, Color, Spectral Class

3.89
Sub-giant

-1.03
B5IV
12489K

The red dot in the diagram below shows where τ Herculis is situated in the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram.

HR Diagram
H-R diagram showing the position of τ Herculis. Attribution: Richard Powell / CC BY-SA

Star System Properties

τ Herculis is a visual double star which can be observed only with the help of very large telescopes. The table below shows key information about the τ Herculis double sysyem:

3.89
14.59
10.7
6.7 arcsec

Distance, Radial Speed, Proper Motion

τ Herculis is distant 314.37 light years from the Sun and it is moving towards the Sun at the speed of 14 kilometers per second.

96.43
314.37
-14 km/s
-0.011 arcsec/y
0.04"/y

Alternative Designations

τ Herculis
(tau Herculis)
22 Herculis
SAO46028
SAO46028

Visibility from Your Location

τ Herculis (tau Herculis) is circumpolar and transits at 00:24 UTC (altitude: 84.8°)