415 Where is the Milky Way Headed

 

In 1783, English astronomer William Herschel looked at more than a dozen stars to see how they moved across the sky perpendicular to our line of sight. By analyzing these so-called proper motions, he determined that the Sun and its attendant planets are moving toward a point in the constellation Hercules called the “solar apex.” Herschel was pretty close. Astronomers now know that we are heading toward a spot some 3° south of the 4^th-magnitude star, Theta (θ) Herculis which itself is 8°west of brilliant Vega