Virgo the Virgin is one of only three constellations representing women that we can see in our Butler skies over the course of the year. Andromeda the Princess and Cassiopeia the Queen are the only other ladies of the sky.

I know you’ve seen Cassiopeia before, although you may not have known what you were stargazing at. Cassiopeia is that bright “W” that you see in the northern sky every single night as it makes a tight circle around Polaris the North Star every 24 hours. This time of year look for the “W” in the very low northern sky.

You can’t miss it. It’s as bright as the Big Dipper.

The “W” outlines the throne that Queen Cassiopeia is tied into because she boasted that she was more beautiful than Hera, the Queen of all the gods, according to mythology. Hera had Cassiopeia tied to the throne and tossed into the sky so she could show her “beauty” to everyone on Earth.

As she spins around the North Star sometimes she’s lying on her back as she is now, but in the early winter when the “W” is upside down she’s hanging by the ropes. It’s not a good idea to tick off the queen of the gods.

Unfortunately Virgo the Virgin is not so prominent in the night sky.

It’s a large but faint constellation. You need really dark skies and lot of patience to see Virgo. It’s what I call a stargazing “deep track.”

How this dim collection of stars about halfway up in the southern sky is supposed to be the goddess of fertility is a mystery to me.

It usually only has one bright star, Spica, but this year the constellation Virgo is hosting the really bright planet Jupiter, shining above Spica. Since Virgo is one of the 13 Zodiac constellations it does host the moon and planets from time to time.

The best way to find Virgo this spring, at least to start with, is to find Jupiter. Then go to Spica and do the best you can. Admittedly it’s not only faint, but not all that well- defined either.

Spica itself is a fascinating star. It’s a blue giant star about 263 light years, or about 1,519 trillion miles, away from Earth. It’s 10 times as massive and more than five times larger than our sun with a girth of almost 5 million miles.

Spica also is a lot hotter than our sun with a surface temperature well over 30,000 degrees F. Spica is also moving away from us at a speed of 2,200 mph, although no farewell parties are planned for Spica anytime soon. Despite its tremendous fleeing speed it will still adorn our spring and summer heavens for many evenings to come.

If you have a larger telescope, and you’re really out in the boonies, you have a chance of seeing at least a few of the many galaxies that are about 60 million light years from Earth.

As you can see on the diagram these galaxies are located a little to the right of Virgo. Since Virgo is such a faint constellation it’s easier to use Jupiter as a bearing. The Virgo cluster will be 20 degrees, or about two fist-widths at arm’s length, above and little to the right of Jupiter.

You are going to need a moderate to larger telescope to see these galaxies, but even with that you might be less than overwhelmed visually.

At best they will mainly be fuzzy patches, but those fuzzy patches are made up of whole islands of stars, each one of them with billions and billions of stars.

By the way, if you flew to the Virgo cluster of galaxies in a jet airliner that flew at an average speed of 500 mph, it would only take you 70,000 trillion years to get there. That flight better have a movie.

To many cultures, including the Greeks and Egyptians, Virgo the Virgin represents the goddess of fertility. She holds in her hand a shaft of wheat. In fact, farmers took the first sighting of Virgo with Spica as a cue to start their spring planting.

When she leaves the evening sky four to five months later, the growing season is over. According to mythology, that’s when Virgo leaves the land of the living and starts her annual search in the underworld for her slain husband, Tammuz.

At last report she hasn’t found him yet, but after every growing season she resumes her search.

Make the stars your old friends

If you have any astronomical questions or want me to write about something you’re seeing in the night sky drop me a line at mikewlynch@comcast.net.

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St Paul and is author of the book, “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and at http://www.adventurepublications.net