Boötes - The Herdsman
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The constellation of Boötes contains the brightest star of the northern hemisphere - Arcturus. It is one of just four that has negative magnitude. The others are Sirius, Canopus and alpha Centuri. To find Arcturus by using the tail of Ursa Major, then click here for the Finding the Constellations page. There are no Messier objects in Boötes, or indeed no deep sky objects as bright as magnitude 10. On the right is Boötes from Uranographia, published by Bode in 1801. You can see above Boötes' head, the constellation of Quadrans, or Quadrans Muralis - the Mural Quadrant. This was placed in the sky by Bode in 1775. Like all of Bode's constellation inventions, Quadrans has since been removed from the sky, but the name is still used in the Quadrantid meteor shower, which radiates from this area.