I know I may be getting ahead of myself just a bit, but if you're expecting a telescope under the Christmas tree I sure hope you get one.

Maybe you've just decided to treat yourself to a telescope for great viewing in 2018 and beyond.

You might be tempted to put off using your new telescope until it warms up a bit but you're making a big mistake. Winter time stargazing is so wonderful.

For one thing, when skies are clear in the evening they're really clear. The sky blurring humidity of summer is long gone and the skies are wonderfully transparent.

Along with that, night skies are truly magical with the great winter constellations and all the celestial treasures within them. Bundle up and prepare to be dazzled.

I'll get to some of the better telescope targets for that new scope of yours in just a bit.

My first word of advice is be patient. Too many Christmas telescopes wind up neglected because of bad technique. Take your time with your new scope and thoroughly read the instructions, even you guys out there like me who don't think it's necessary.

First and foremost, get to know your way around the Butler sky. That new telescope of yours won't magically download celestial navigation in your head.

Some telescopes have built-in navigation systems that can help, but nothing beats getting to know the constellations and where they reside and how they move. There are many books, software programs, and websites that can help you make the stars your old friends.

There are also wonderful smart phone apps that can be invaluable. Some apps are better than others. I really like Sky Guide, but there's also Starwalk, Starchart, Star Rover, and several others. Hold your phone loaded with the app toward the sky and really get to know the stellar neighborhood. Make sure that the screen on your phone is switched over to the red screen night view to help you keep your night vision.

A really important thing to remember, especially this time of year, to make your telescope experience much better is to make sure your telescope sits outside on solid ground for at least a half-hour before you use it. It has to acclimate to colder outside temperatures — otherwise whatever you gaze at could be a little fuzzy and you could become really discouraged.

Make sure your small finder telescope or other finding device like a laser that comes with some scopes is in sync with the main telescope. Check the instructions because these devices vary from scope to scope. You should be able to see the moon, or whatever your target is, in the main scope with low magnification after you get it centered in the finder scope.

It's best to get the finder and main scope synced up using a fixed land object.

Another very important thing is to initially use a low magnification, wide field eyepiece when you're searching for a sky target.

Once you find your target you can go to higher magnification eyepieces, but you will notice diminishing clarity with increasing magnification. This is normal. All telescopes have their limits.

Now for some easy starter targets.

The Moon

From now until later this coming week is a great time to actually view the moon because you can really see a lot of details like craters and mountains and the longer shadows, which will really give you perspective about how high some of these mountains are.

Your best views will be right around what's known as the terminator, the line between the sunlit and darkened part of the moon.

Later this week and next week we'll have a full or near full moon and it won't be nearly as fun though to view because the brightness and the high angle of the sun make seeing details on the surface a lot more difficult.

Pleiades Star Cluster

This is the best star cluster in the sky. It's easily seen with the naked eye in the mid- to high eastern sky.

Through even a small telescope you can see dozens of very young stars more than 400 light years away. One light-year equals almost 6 trillion miles.

Perseus and Double Star Cluster

This is real eye candy. It's nearly visible to the naked eye. Aim your scope very high in the sky between the constellation Cassiopeia the Queen and Perseus the Hero as you can see on the diagram.

It's one of my very favorites as you'll see two distinct clusters of stars side by side. They're both 7,000 light years away.

I know you'll love what you see.

Orion Nebula

This is simply wondrous through the eyepiece of your telescope.

You can easily find it with the naked eye as a fuzzy middle star in the three stars that make up the sword of Orion the Hunter.

Through your scope you'll see a glob of gas with a little bit of a greenish tint to it. It's a giant cloud of hydrogen gas about 1,500 light years away.

Within it you should be able to see four faint stars arranged in a trapezoid. They are very young stars, less than half a million years old that were born out of this nebula.

These stars are producing so much ultraviolet radiation that they're causing the surrounding nebula that they were born in to glow like a neon light.

Andromeda Galaxy

The next door neighbor galaxy to our Milky Way is nearly overhead in the constellation Andromeda the Princess.

Check out my December and January star maps on my website www.lynchandthestars.com for details that will help you find it.

One more thing. The clarity of whatever you're viewing can vary because of subtle differences in Earth's atmosphere. High winds in the upper atmosphere can have a definite blurring effect that can vary from night to night, hour to hour, and even minute to minute.

That's the reason you should take long continuous looks through the telescope at whatever you're viewing so you can catch those extra-sweet moments of clarity.

Atmospheric blurring due to winds is referred to by amateur astronomers as “bad seeing.” With the naked eye it's difficult to detect bad seeing conditions. The sky can look as clear as a bell but the view through the scope may not be.

One indication of possible bad seeing conditions you can see at a glance is how much the stars are twinkling. The more they twinkle, the more bad seeing you have.

If everything looks fuzzy in your telescope try looking another night. Again, when using telescopes you need to stay patient.

Enjoy that new telescope and take your time.

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 or at http://www.adventurepublications.net