The Story
The first thing to know about Bootes is how to say it. A lot of people pronounce it like baby shoes – "booties" – but it has two long O's in it, one right after the other – "boh-OH-tees." Often, the second O has two little dots over it to show you that.
Bootes has many names. Most often, he's called "the herdsman," because he seems to move the stars around the sky like a herdsman moves cattle or sheep.
As the night goes on, Ursa Minor turns around on its tail, the North Star, and Ursa Major also goes around just below it. Bootes follows along behind them.
For watchers in the Middle East, the North Star was a sheep pen, and Bootes the sheepherder. Because he is following bears and not cattle, however, he is also called "the bear watcher," and, in some traditions, he is hunting those bears.
Or perhaps Ursa Major is really a farm wagon, and Bootes is riding it around and around, or it's a plow, and he's endlessly working the fields of the sky – in England, they told his story both those ways for many years.
It seems strange to have so many stories about him and so few stories in which he is anybody in particular. But maybe that's because people were watching him before they began to invent those stories.
Bootes includes a very bright star, Arcturus, which helped ancient sailors and hunters keep track of the time at night. Long before clocks were invented, the North Star was like the center of the dial, and Arcturus went around it like a hand, telling them how late it was getting, and how long it would be before dawn.
Bootes is mentioned in Homer's Odyssey, as one of the constellations Odysseus watches as he sails, trying to find his way home. It's also mentioned in the Bible's Book of Job.
For Inuit people icefishing in December and January in ancient times, keeping an eye on Arcturus, which they called "Sibwudli," was very helpful. When you get that far north, the sun barely comes up at all in the middle of winter and it's easy to lose track of time.
So you can decide for yourself whether Bootes is a herdsman, a plowman, a bear hunter, a wagon driver or a big clock. But whoever he is, and whatever he's doing up there, he's certainly been a very important person for a very long time.
But people still pronounce his name wrong!
The Stars
If Bootes is the Bear Driver, it only makes sense that you can find him by following a bear’s tail! First, find the Big Dipper.
Then follow its tail from the main body to the end, and keep going in that same curved line for about twice the handle’s length. There you will find a very bright star.
This red giant is Arcturus, and since you followed a curved line to find it, astronomers like to say “follow the arc to Arcturus.”
To see the rest of the constellation, think of Arcturus as the bottom of an ice cream cone that stands up next to Ursa Major. Or you might think of it as shaped like a kite.
If you’re planning to look at the sky for awhile, or if you’re going to be outside doing something else, take a look at Arcturus and at Polaris. Try to remember where Arcturus is in relation to the ground.
Then look at other constellations and stars, or do whatever else you were going to do. Let some time pass.
Then look back at Polaris, and find Arcturus again by following the arc of the Big Dipper’s handle.
Where has it moved to since you first saw it? Can you see how ancient hunters and sailors could use Arcturus and Polaris together to tell time?
Start at Arcturus and head towards the edge of the ice cream cone, on the side away from Ursa Major. About halfway up the “cone” part, you’ll see two stars, one bright one and one not as large.
The bright star is Izar (Arabic for ‘’veil”) or Pulcherrima (Latin for “most beautiful”) and, if you have a telescope, you may be able to see that it is a very pretty double star.
Izar’s two stars are an orange bright giant and a white dwarf, so that, if you can get a good, sharp look through a telescope, the contrast makes quite a picture!
Text copyright 2006, Mike Peterson - Artwork copyright 2006, Dylan Meconis