Boötes

Boötes, pronounced with both 'O's as 'boötez', is one of the 88 modern constellations in the northern sky. The name is from the Greek word , which means herdsman  someone who takes care of animals.

 Shape 
The constellation's shape is like a kite.  Boötes has the third brightest star in the night sky, called Arcturus (α Bootis). The astronomer Ptolemy listed it in the 2nd century when he made a list of 48 constellations.

The Cloverleaf quasar is visually in Bootes.

 Main stars 
 α Bootis (Arcturus) is the brightest and most important star of the constellation, with a magnitude of -0.04, the 3rd brightest star of the sky. It is an orange giant star
 β Bootis (Nekkar), yellow giant with magnitude 3.49  and 219 light years from the Earth
 y Bootis (Ceginus), Delta Scuti variable with magnitude 3,04
 δ Bootis (Princeps), another yellow giant.

 Deep-sky objects 

 NGC 5248, spiral galaxy, 10º south of Arcturus
 NGC 5466, globular cluster, 9º northwest of Arcturus, near M3, a globular cluster in the constellation Canes Venatici.

References

Category:Constellations
Category:Constellations listed by Ptolemy