The constellation Bootes is ranked 13th by its size, of the 88 modern constellations. It includes the 3rd brightest star in the sky, Arcturus.
The facts
1. Image of: A Bear Watcher – a defender of Big Bear (Ursa Mayor)
2. Right ascension: 13H 30m to 15H 45m
3. Declination: +8 to +55.5 degrees
4. Quadrant: NQ3
5. Latitudes visible at: Between +90 degrees and -50 degrees
6. Time best visible: At 21:00 in June
7. Area of sky covered: 907 square degrees
8. Rank in constellation size: 13th
9. Notable and Named Stars: Alpha Bootes (Arcturus, Haris-el-Selma), Beta Bootes (Nekkar, Meres), Gamma Bootes (Siginus, Haris), Epsilon Bootes (Izar, Mirak, Pu;cherrima), Eta Bootes (Muphrid), Theta Bootes (Asellus Primus), Iota Bootes (Asellus Secundus) , Kappa-2 Bootes (Asellus Tertius), Mu Bootes (Alkalurops, Inkalunis, Clava, Venabulum), Ro Bootes (Hemelein Prima), Sigma Bootes (Hemeleien Secunda)
10. Other objects in the constellation: NGC5466 – loose globular cluster, Boores Void
11. Brightest star: Alpha Bootes (Arcturus), with an apparent magnitude of 0.04 – 3rd brightest star in the sky
12. Nearest star: Wolf 498, about 17.7 light-years away
13: Meteor showers: January Bootids, June Bootids, Quadrantids
14. Mythology: There are several versions of Bootes origin in mythology. One of them is that this is Arkades, who chased down a she-bear, which really was his mother, Callisto, transformed into a bear-shape by Hera. Other myths refer to Bootes as Atlas.
15. Historical significance: Discovered by Ptolemy in as early as 1st century.
16. Name Meaning: In other myth, Bootes is believed to be an image of Icarius, immortalized by Dionysus (Bacchus) after he was mistakenly assassinated by his drunk friends.
17. Position in the Zodiac: Not Part of Zodiac.
Bootes Constellation Images
Other Interesting Stories
The Constellation is formed around big Asterism that includes Alpha, Epsilon, Delta, Beta, Gamma and Ro Bootes. The asterism is called “Kite” or “Parachute”.
The Bootes constellation has many double-stars, which are a favorite target for observation by many amateur astronomers.
Mu Bootes is a double star – with two Suns that can be distinguished even via binoculars!
The right name of Bootes is Boötes - the ö means that both “o” are pronounced, rather than “u”.
References
Content:
Wikipedia articles (English , Russian , Hebrew )
https://www.astromyth.tau-site.ru/Constellations/Boo.htm (Russian)
Images:
The top image is courtesy of https://www.scienceandart.com
The bottom section images are from wikipedia and https://aer.noao.edu/web_plates/bootes.gif
