- Boötes_IAU.svg (Wikimedia Commons)
- Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (Wikipedia)
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is a NASA robotic spacecraft currently orbiting the Moon in an eccentric polar mapping orbit. Data collected by LRO have been described as essential for planning NASA’s future human and robotic missions to the Moon. Its detailed mapping program is identifying safe landing sites, locating potential resources on the Moon, characterizing the radiation environment, and demonstrating new technologies.
- Alkalurops (stars.astro.illinois.edu)
ALKALUROPS (Mu Bootis). The naming of stars sometimes seems random. Some bright stars within a constellation will carry no proper names, while other much fainter ones do (the classic case that of Gamma Cassiopeiae). In Bootes, the Herdsman, the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma stars carry the proper names Arcturus, Nekkar, and Seginus. Third magnitude Delta has none, but then we can reach all the way to fourth magnitude (4.31) Mu Bootis, which is called by the jaw-breaking name Alkalurops.