# Muphrid (Eta Boötis)

Muphrid (Eta Boötis) is a star in the constellation Boötes, magnitude 2.7.

**Arcturus’s next-door neighbour — in our sky and in space.**

Muphrid’s closest stellar neighbour is Arcturus — not just in our sky, but in space. The two lie at almost the same distance from us, and each would shine brightly in the other’s sky. From a planet near Muphrid, Arcturus would blaze at magnitude −5.2, about twice as bright as Venus appears to us.

Muphrid is a yellowish [star](https://astropilot.space/glossary/star) of about 1.7 times the Sun’s mass and around 2.7 billion years old. It is starting to evolve away from the main sequence and has grown to about 2.7 times the Sun’s width. It is also unusually rich in iron, close to the upper limit for stars like it in the Milky Way’s disc.

Its name comes from the Arabic for “the single one of the lancer”. The Boorong people of north-western Victoria knew it as Weetkurrk, the singing bush lark.

Muphrid (Eta Boötis) is 37 light-years away: the light we see from it set off in 1989, around the time the Hubble Space Telescope was launched.

## Did you know?

- **The view from Arcturus.** Seen from a planet near Arcturus, Muphrid would shine at about magnitude −2.4, more than twice as bright as Sirius looks from Earth.
- **The lance of the lancer.** The Calendarium of Al Achsasi al Mouakket called it Ramih al Ramih, translated into Latin as Lancea Lanceator — possibly “the lance of the lancer”.
- **A partner unconfirmed.** A companion orbiting every 494 days has been suspected from Muphrid’s spectrum, but speckle interferometry has not confirmed it.

A pale yellow star of magnitude 2.7 about 5 degrees west of brilliant Arcturus; the two make an easy pair to the eye. Compare Muphrid’s pale yellow with the deeper orange of Arcturus.

## When and where to see it

It is best placed in the evening sky around May, when it crosses the meridian at about 10 pm local time (around midnight in April). It can be seen from everywhere north of 72°S and never sets north of 72°N.

At its highest it stands 58° up from 50°N, 73° up from 35°N, 72° up from the equator, 37° up from 35°S.

## Facts

- Type: Star
- Constellation: Boötes
- Designations: Eta Boötis, η Boo, 8 Boo, HR 5235, HD 121370, HIP 67927
- Magnitude: 2.7
- Position: RA 13h 54.7m, Dec +18° 24′ (J2000)
- Spectral type: G0IV
- Colour: yellow (B−V 0.57)
- Distance: 37 light-years
- Discovered: Known since antiquity

Open AstroPilot to see when Muphrid (Eta Boötis) is highest tonight from your location, how easy it is with your telescope or binoculars, and an eyepiece view. https://astropilot.space/object/muphrid