Pocket Observatory

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Far from any lights, the sky fills with stars. Drawn from real star positions; bigger dots are brighter stars. See it from a city or the suburbs in the app.

✨ Constellation

Boötes

The Herdsman, with Arcturus, the brightest star in the northern half of the sky.

Name means: The Herdsman
Best seen: June evenings
Where to see it: The northern half of Earth, and the tropics south of the equator
Brightest star: Arcturus
Stars in the pattern: 12

Did you know?

Follow the curve of the Big Dipper’s handle to “arc to Arcturus”.
The Quadrantid meteor shower is named after an old constellation that no longer exists, in a part of the sky now inside Boötes.

In this part of the sky

Ursa Major The Great Bear, home of the Big Dipper. Virgo The Maiden: the biggest constellation of the zodiac, with the bright star Spica.

More NASA photos of BoötesStraight from NASA’s image library, in the app

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All of night sky

Orion The Hunter, with three bright stars in a row for his belt. Ursa Major The Great Bear, home of the Big Dipper. Ursa Minor The Little Bear, with Polaris at the tip of its tail. Cassiopeia A bright W of five stars, named after a boastful queen. Scorpius The Scorpion, with red Antares at its heart. Leo The Lion, whose head is a backwards question mark of stars.

Facts: Star patterns: d3-celestial (IAU figures, Hipparcos star data). Stories: traditional Greek and Roman myths. Open Boötes in the app.