Object name: Bootes
Equatorial: RA: 14h 44m 01s Dec: +30°41'51"(current)
Equatorial 2000: RA: 14h 43m 48s Dec: +30°43'12"
Sky Database: Constellation
Abbreviation: Boo
Constellation: Genitive Form: Bootis
Description: The Herdsman
Remarks: Pronunciation: boh OH' teez
Genitive Pronunciation: boh OH' tis
Bootes - The
Herdsman
The herdsman Bootes appears in the
sky behind the constellation Ursa Major The
Great Bear. Bootes is Arcas, son of Zeus and Callisto, the
daughter of King Lycaon. One evening Zeus came to dine with his
father-in-law who doubted that his dinner guest was really the god
Zeus. As a test, he cut up Arcas and served him as part of the meal.
Zeus recognized his son, and in a rage turned Lycaon into a wolf and
killed Lycaon's sons. He gathered up the parts of his own son, made
him whole again, and took him to Maia the Pleiad, who raised the
boy.
Around this time Zeus's wife Hera,
jealous of her philandering husband, turned Callisto into a bear.
Years later, as a teenager, Arcas was hunting in the woods. Callisto
spotted him and tried to speak, but as a bear she could only growl.
Arcas chased Callisto through the woods and into the temple of Zeus,
a place forbidden to all under penalty of death. Zeus grabbed Arcas
and Callisto from the temple and placed them in the sky in the form
of the constellations of the herdsman
and the bear.
Arcturus, the brightest star in
Bootes and the fourth brightest star in the sky means "bear guard."
It is a red giant star located only 36 light years from Earth. Only
one other red giant star Betelgeuse in Orion
is visible in the Northern Hemisphere.
