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Facts on the Constellation Bootes

Bootes, a constellation associated with many legends, is best viewed in late spring or early summer. Depending on the culture, Bootes is a herdsman, an inventor or a guardian of another close-by grouping of stars depicting his mother. Bootes contains one of the brightest starts in the night sky, easily found by using the Big Dipper as a guide.

Bootes Mythology
- One particular legend states that Bootes was the son of a goddess and that he went on to invent the plow, earning him a place forever in the heavens. The Egyptians felt that Bootes guarded the stars that seem to rotate about the north celestial pole, preventing them from doing evil. In one scenario, Bootes is the son of Zeus and a nymph named Callisto. The jealous wife of Zeus changed Callisto into a bear. When Bootes happened upon the bear and was about to kill her, Zeus changed the mother into Ursa Major, the Great Bear, and Bootes into her guardian.
Arcturus
- The shape of the stars that compose Bootes to modern observers reminds them of a kite or an ice cream cone. At the base of the kite, where the tail would attach, is the brilliant star, Arcturus, the fourth brightest star of the night sky. Arcturus has a diameter that dwarfs that of our own Sun, being 20 million miles wide, according to Utah Skies. Arcturus is close, only 37 light years from Earth, allowing a viewer to see its yellow-orange color.
Arc to Arcturus
- Arcturus is not difficult to locate. To find Arcturus, astronomers advise novices to look to the northern sky on a clear, June night. It will be almost overhead. Locate the seven stars that comprise the Big Dipper, part of Ursa Major. These stars, in the shape of a bowl and a handle, are among the most recognizable of all star groupings. Following an imaginary line from where the "handle" attaches to the "bowl" creates an arc that leads directly to Arcturus in Bootes, resulting in the saying among stargazers of "Arc to Arcturus."
More Bootes Facts
- Arcturus is easily the most noteworthy celestial object in Bootes, states Astromax. The region of the sky Bootes occupies contains little else of value to the observer, even those with powerful telescopes. One of its stars, Epsilon Bootes, is a double star system, but it is difficult to see both individuals. The Quadrantid meteor shower, usually reliable for as many as 40 meteors per minute, seems to radiate from Bootes on January 4 of each year, according to the "National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Night Sky."

Astronomy