Welcome back everyone, this is Lesson 6 of our beginner video course where we are learning the star constellations of the Northern Hemisphere sky.
finding bootes the plowman in the night sky
As we are hearing the end of the Summer season, this is a great time to add even more clarity to our star-sighted vision and get to know another new constellation called Bootes.
We are also going to circle back around to where we began this Summer where we first were introduced to Ursa Major and The Big Dipper within it.
When you do a search for Bootes on Wikepedia, that we are going to look at here, you will find this under the History and Mythology heading:
“In Ancient Babylon, the stars of Bootes were known as SHU-PA. They were apparently depicted as the God Enlil, who was the leader of the Babylonian pantheon and special patron of farmers. Bootes may have been represented by the animal foreleg constellation in Ancient Egypt, resembling that of an ox, sufficiently to have been originally proposed as the foreleg of an ox.”
We will be taking a look deeper in future pieces about these connections back to Ancient Babylon and Ancient Egypt, but it’s this next bit that Wikipedia tells us about Bootes that we are going to focus on in this getting to know Bootes piece.
Wikipedia goes on:
“Homer mentions Bootes in The Odyssey, as a celestial reference for navigation, describing it as ‘late setting’ or ‘slow to set’ “.
Exactly whom Bootes is supposed to represent in Greek mythology is not clear.
According to one version, he was a son of Demeter, Philomenus whose twin brother was Plutus. He was a plowman who drove the ox of the constellation Ursa Major. This agrees with the constellation name. The Ancient Greeks saw the asterism now called The Big Dipper or Plow (Plough), as a cart with oxen.
Some myths say Bootes invented the plow and was memorialized for his ingenuity as a constellation.”
One more thing Wikipedia tells us here will be important:
“Arcturus, the brightest star in the constellation comes from the Greek word meaning ‘guardian of the bear’…”
We are going to now take a look at a star map, starting in the beginning of August, during the 1st two hours after the sun has set and remember this is from the perspective of a stargazer facing due south as we are looking into the night sky above our heads to find the constellation Bootes.
Using what we’ve already learned this Summer about finding the star constellations, it should make finding Bootes in the night sky pretty easy. Bootes is an easier constellation to find thanks to the very big and bright star in the constellation that is the guardian of the bear star, called Arcturus.
Arcturus is known to be the third (some sources say fourth) brightest star in the night sky, making it a hard one to miss.
Bootes is one of those constellations known as circumpolar stars, just like Hercules we were looking for in Lesson 4.
When looking at the star map beginning in the month of August, during the 1st 2 hours after sunset, you can see Bootes traveling right next to Hercules, or to the West, or the right of Hercules when we are looking up at it.
When looking at the shape that Bootes makes in the sky, it’s easy to see why some have described it as an ice cream cone or a kite, but when I was a little girl, I looked up at Bootes and saw it differently still than how the constellation drawings showed it.
To me, Bootes has always looked like a superhero with arms out, flying through the air with his cape flying behind him or a woman skydiving head first in a dress. I see Arcturus as Bootes’ head star, where most constellation drawings have Arcturus at Bootes’ waist or knee.
If you first look for Arcturus, by turning your head to the right, or West, you will find Bootes rather easily, appearing closer to the horizon throughout the month of August, going into the month of September.
Right next to Bootes, more to your right, or to the West, you will find Ursa Major and The Big Dipper within it. You will end up having to turn not just your head, but your whole body to the right to find The Big Dipper this time of the year.
When you look at both Bootes’ and The Big Dipper’s (Ursa Major) location as they appear to be dipping lower towards the horizon and are so far to the West this time of year, you can now see why Homer described Bootes in The Odyssey as being “late setting” or “slow to set”.
Now we know what so many others have missed about these stories and myths
All of the most famous stories and myths are telling us not just about the characters playing their starring roles, but they also tell us about their location by season of the year.
In other words, these stories and myths are telling us not just who and where, but also when.
Bootes, or The Plowman is pushing his plow, The Big Dipper, appearing to dip down lower to the horizon during the end of the Summer season in the Northern Hemisphere going in to the Fall season.
Anyone who knew how to tell time by this heavenly clock would know then that the time of harvest after the Summer growing season was fast approaching and after which would come the Fall where you find the farmers out in their fields turning over the soil for the next growing season with their plows, in the Fall.
Some of the information in this post comes from our book series Constellations by Campfire: The Easy and Naked Eye Way for the Summer Season. (click here)
Fall is fast approaching, so if you would like to continue your stargazing journey into the Fall, be sure to get the Constellations by Campfire: The Easy and Naked Eye Way for the Fall Season that begin with the Fall Equinox with full page star maps. (click here)
See if you can get outside tonight and find Bootes, The Plowman pushing his plow, The Big Dipper across the night sky.
If you would like to watch the video version of this lesson, you can find it below.
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Until next time…stay lit and be well,
shannon