HERCULES OF ANTWERP

-dedication to the city where Gerardus Mercator
published the first modern atlas in 1570,
using the Meridian of Antwep as the Prime Meridian-

Astropoem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
Design by Florin Stancu



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The most famous mythological brave hero
is certainly Hercules.

So famous that a region in the sky
was named after him
as the constellation Hercules.

So famous that any brave hero in the world
is liable to be considered
“a local Hercules”.

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One day in 2005
the joint team of SARM and Dutch Meteor Society
visited the beautiful Belgian town of Antwerpen
(or Antwerp or Anvers),
where one of the symbols
is such a zonal Hercules,
the brave antique soldier Brabo,
who cut off the hand of the giant Druon Antigoon
and liberated the river Scheldt.
And a region on Earth
was named after him
as the province Brabant.

Photos by Jos Nijland (Holland):

















Photos by Valentin Grigore:



























Photos by Casper ter Kuile (Holland):


















So I suppose that actually
some of the sky lovers from Antwerp
use to see in the constellation Hercules
the shape of Silvius Brabo.

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© 2010 SARM
(Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy)