l Herculis

A faint fifth-magnitude star in the far south of Hercules, lying in the region where the constellation extends southwards between Ophiuchus to the east and Serpens Caput to the east. On the Bayer system, the star is identified with a lowercase 'L', while its Flamsteed number is 45 Herculis. As a variable star, it also possesses the variable designation V776 Herculis.

This is a white star on the main sequence, though considerably hotter, more massive and more luminous than the Sun. l Herculis is some four times the Sun's diameter, and emits about hundred times as much light. It lies some 423 light years (or 130 parsecs) from the Solar System, a distance that is very gradually decreasing as the star's motion relative to the Sun brings the two stars closer together.

l Herculis belongs to the class of variable stars known as Alpha² Canum Venaticorum variables. In common with other stars of this kind, l Herculis is chemically unusual, showing high levels of silicon in its spectrum, and an extremely strong magnetic field. The surface of the star is not uniformly bright, and this means that, as it rotates, its brightness varies as seen from Earth. At its brightest it can reach magnitude +5.21, periodically decreasing to +5.27, which represents about a 5% change in its apparent brightness.