Ramus

Ramus, the branch or bough, is an addition to the early modern asterism Cerberus in Hercules. The name occurs in Bayer (1603) as a term but in depiction only later.

Etymology and History

Some of the following material is drawn from the "Medieval and Early Modern Europe" discussion on Hercules:

Medieval and Early Modern Europe

Ramus et Cerberus in Senex (1721/2), thanks to Daniel Crouch and Ian Ridpath.

Traditionally, Hercules carries a lion's skin and a club. Yet, in Early Modern Europe, all sorts of variants occurred: instead of the skin that was supposed to protect him, he then was depicted with branches of apples or instead of branches with a three-headed snake in his hand.

The creature with the three heads was typically labelled "Cerberus" although the ancient Kerberos/ Cerberus had dog-heads and not snake-heads.

The branch with the apples resembled the myth according to which he stole the "golden apples" as one of his celebrated deeds.

John Senex even labelled the apples, as Ian Ridpath points out:

Hercules holds Ramus, the apple branch, and Cerberus, the three-headed monster, in his outstretched hand, as depicted by the English cartographer John Senex (1678–1740) on his chart of the northern celestial hemisphere, Stellarum Fixarum Hemisphaerium Boreale, published 1721/2. This chart was based on the pirated edition of John Flamsteed's unfinished star catalogue that had been published by Edmond Halley in 1712. Senex called the combined figure Ramus Cerberus, and it appeared again on his planisphere of the northern sky issued posthumously in 1746. Johann Bode adopted the combined figure on his Uranographia atlas of 1801 but changed its name to Cerberus et Ramus, and that is the name by which it became most widely known.

Bode's map in the Uranographia (1801) is available in the digital collection of ETH Zurich.

Stars in "Cerberus et Ramus"

Cerberus et Ramus is dominated by approximately 14 stars brighter than 6th magnitude, of which 4 dominate which are brighter than V magnitude 4.5. In order of brightness, they are:

• 109 Her (HIP 90139, HD 169414, HR 6895; Vmag = 3.85, K2III, d = 37pc),
• 110 Her (HIP 92043, HD 173667, HR 7061; Vmag = 4.19, F5.5IV-V, d = 19pc),
• 111 Her (HIP 92161, HD 173880, HR 7069; Vmag = 4.34, A3IV, d = 29pc),
• 102 Her (HIP 88886, HD 166182, HR 6787; Vmag = 4.37, B2IV, d = 357pc).

IAU Working Group on Star Names

The names "Cerberus" and "Ramus" (or combinations) were suggested to WGSN in 2023. The name "Cerberus" is already in use by the IAU for asteroid (1865) Cerberus, and the spelling variant Kerberos was adopted by the IAU for the satellite (134340) Pluto IV, discovered in 2011. The name "Ramus" was adopted for 102 Her in June 2025.

Reference

• References (general)
• References (early modern)