- Boötes_IAU.svg (Wikimedia Commons)
- 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.