Sometimes known as the Hunter or the Ploughman, the constellations Bootes is most commonly referred to as the Herdsman. Taking on the appearance of a giant celestial kite soaring amongst the stars, this constellation holds one very bright star. To locate it, following the stars in the Big Dipper’s handle which arcs down to the star Arcturus. This K0 supergiant shines 113 times brighter than our Sun and emits 215 times more radiation. It measures 26 solar diameters across or one quarter the size of the orbit of Mercury. Located 37 light-years from us the light of this magnitude -0.1 star was used to open the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago.

Looking ten degrees north of Arcturus along the left side of the kite is Epsilon Bootes. Shining at second magnitude and lying some 209 light-years (ly) away, this nice but difficult double star displays a pallet of pale yellow and light blue dots. They are separated by a mere 2.9 arc seconds thus requiring medium size optics to split. Independently these suns glow at magnitudes 2.7 and 5.1 respectively.

The only globular cluster resides within the boundaries of Bootes of NGC 5466. It is however fairly dim for a globular. Situated a lengthy 47,000 ly from us, this magnitude 10.0 smudge will require at least a four-inch telescope to begin resolving it. And even when you do, it will appear scarcely populated. A trick to locating NGC 5466 is to first find the 7th magnitude globular cluster M3 in Canes Venatici, a very bright and dense globular.  Now move your scope a little more than five degrees to the east and you will pick it up with a bit of luck.

So who is up for a challenge? For those who are, we have Arp 297. This faint group of four galaxies consists of NGC 5752 at 14th magnitude, NGC 5753 at 15th, NGC 5755 at 15th and the largest and brightest member NGC 5754 at magnitude 13.8. Arp galaxies are basically, faint peculiar objects. Some of these shapes and interactions are quite remarkable. The marker galaxy NGC 5754 is located a little east of the midpoint of the imaginary line between Nekkar and Seginus at the top of the kite.

As we slide over to Serpens, we find ourselves again in galaxy country. Starting from the head and NGC 5962, this 12th magnitude island of stars possesses many tight galactic arms and has a bright core. One of the brightest galaxies within the boundaries of the constellation is NGC 5921. A nice face-on orientation, this galaxy sported a supernova in early 2001.

Without question before going any further, you just hunt down M5. Listed just under naked eye visibility, this magnitude 5.8 gem is a nice distraction from looking at or trying to find faint fuzzies mentioned in this article. Stuart Heggie, who lives near Flesherton, Ontario, took this remarkable portrait of M5. You can easily resolve stars right down to the core – nice work Stuart. Another of the numerous targets to the lower left of the constellation is NGC 6070. This is another elongated galaxy residing an estimated 83 million ly. At magnitude 12.5, it will be a bit hard to discern its structure but it has a somewhat bright nucleus.