Memorial Day weekend is considered by many as the star of the summer season, even though astronomically, summer doesn't actually begin until June 20, the date of the Summer Solstice.

But who wants to wait that long to kick off summer!

So that's why this Skywatch episode is all about one of the first summer constellations to show its face, the constellation Bootes the Hunting Farmer.

It has several pronunciations. Most people say Boot-tees, but I've also heard it pronounced boo-oat-tees. No matter how you pronounce it, Bootes resembles a giant kite flying on its side in the high eastern sky.

Finding Bootes early in the evening is easy. Just look for the brightest star you can see in the high eastern sky. That's Arcturus, not only the brightest star in Bootes but the second brightest star we see in our entire night sky anytime of the year. I call it the "star of summer."

If you need rock solid confirmation you're seeing Arcturus, use the old stargazing rule "arc to Arcturus."

Look at the nearby Big Dipper and follow the curve or arc of its handle beyond the end of the handle and you'll run right into Arcturus, which is at the tail of giant sideways kite. So to see the rest of Bootes, just look to the left of Arcturus, and without too much trouble, you should see the rest of the kite.

Arcturus has a distinctive orange glow to it, typical of stars classified as red giant stars. Even though Arcturus is 25 times the diameter of our sun, it's only 1.5 times as massive. Arcturus is running out of hydrogen fuel in its core. When that happens, stars puff out into red giants. This will happen to our own sun in about 5 billion years. When we look at Arcturus, We are looking at our future.

Arcturus is just about 37 light years away, or about 214 trillion miles away, and believe it or not, that's considered a nearby star.

Arcturus is so far away that the light we see from it tonight left that star in 1971 when Richard Nixon was our president. Make no mistake about that!

As it is with many constellations, there are many mythological stories about how Bootes got in the sky.

Probably the one that's best known is the one about how Bootes, out of desperate poverty, invented a plow that could be pulled by oxen. Ceres, the goddess of agriculture was so impressed with Bootes that when he died, she transformed his body into a constellation.

While he was alive, one of Bootes' passions was hunting. So when he died, Ceres placed Bootes up in the heavens and put him on everlasting pursuit of the Big Bear Ursa Major. Bootes is having the time of his life, or should I say afterlife.

That's a nice story, but the one I love involves one of my heroes, Bacchus, the Roman god of wine. Bootes, also known as Icarias, was the proprietor of a large vineyard and grew the best grapes in all the land.

Bacchus was so impressed with Bootes' vineyard he revealed the secret of wine making to him. Bootes immediately got all his friends together, and the first wine tasting party quickly got our hand and turned into a wine gulping party.

Most of the guests passed out, and they all woke up the next day with massive hangovers. Not knowing about the intoxicating effects of wine, many of them thought Bootes was trying to poison them. Before the first wine maker woke up that morning, his former friends took spears and rocks to him.

When Bacchus heard this, he took pity of Bootes and transformed his lifeless beaten body into the stars.

So the next time you're out there after dark, raise your glasses to the constellation Bootes. He gave his life for you!

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and is author of the book, "Pennsylvania Starwatch," available at bookstores and at his Web site, www.lynchandthestars.com