Valentine's Day is coming up and once again you'll be trying to woo your beloved with something new and exciting.

This especially goes for you guys out there. Candy and flowers are wonderful but you can raise the love stakes a little higher. Get heavenly with the one you love. Give her the stars! Take your sweetheart out and take in the starry skies.

If you can make it out of greater Butler and into the country, all the better. It can still be a special night in the city, but you'll have to work at it a little harder.

My suggestion, wherever you wind up, is to bring a pair of lounging lawn chairs (maybe just one if you really want to snuggle), warm blankets, something warm to drink in a thermos, some snacks and this column. You'll be good to go.

Constellations are pictures in the stars that help tell the great soap operas in the sky. Every culture has its own names and stories about the constellations. I love the Greek and Roman tales because they're laced with love stories of all kinds. Two of the better celestial sagas of love are in the sky tonight.

The first one involves the constellations Cassiopeia and Cepheus, the queen and king of ancient Ethiopia. Cassiopeia is an easy constellation to spot. Just look early in the evening in the high northwestern sky for a bright upside down 'W.' You can't miss it.

Cepheus is a larger constellation but fainter than the queen. Just look below Cassiopeia for what looks like a house with a really steep roof lying on its side.

Cassiopeia and Cepheus were so much in love with each other they vowed that they would never be separated, ever. They would have lived happily ever after but Cassiopeia had a bit of vanity in her that eventually got her in a lot of trouble.

The queen was beautiful and she knew it. She never passed up a chance to brag of her beauty, a diva with an industrial-strength ego.

One evening after a royal ball she stepped outside on her castle balcony and shouted to the sky that she was even more beautiful than Hera, the queen of the gods on Mount Olympus. Big mistake!

Hera was so offended that she dove down from a cloud, tied Cassiopeia up in her throne, and pitched her high into the sky, forever banished from Earth.

When Cepheus heard of the fate of his dear wife he recalled their vow never to be separated and appealed to Zeus, the king of the gods, to permit him to forever join his queen in the heavens.

At first Zeus was reluctant to grant his request because he also feared the wrath of Hera, but Cepheus, down on his knees and sobbing out of control, was too much for Zeus to take.

He picked Cepheus up and shot him up into the sky like a guided missile in the direction of Cassiopeia, and to this day and night, the royal couple remain in a celestial love lock.

Another great story of love in the skies involves Orion the Hunter, one of the most well-known constellations in the sky. You'll see the outline of the great hunter rising diagonally above the southeast horizon as soon as darkness sets in. The three bright stars in a row make up his belt.

Orion was a reclusive but handsome hunter who slept by day and hunted by night.

As he chased down beasts through the night, he attracted the love and lust interest of Artemis, the goddess of the moon.

Night after night her job was to lead a team of flying horses across the sky, pulling a cart that contained the moon.

One night she couldn't resist it anymore. She abandoned the horses and the moon cart and joined her new boyfriend for a night of hunting and romance.

Toward dawn she leaped back to the reins of the moon cart and quickly finished her nightly track. This happened night after night, and eventually Artemis' father, Zeus, heard of this and was outraged. He had to put a stop to this madness.

Unbeknownst to his daughter, Zeus arranged for a giant killer scorpion to fatally sting Orion during his daytime slumber.

Orion luckily awoke just before the scorpion bit him. A huge fight broke out and Orion was about to swing a mighty ax to strike his attacker, but the giant scorpion managed to get his fangs into the soon-to-be dead hunter.

The next night, Artemis discovered her dead boyfriend, cried her eyes out and then lifted his body high into the sky and magically transformed him into the bright constellation we see all winter long.

That way, Artemis could be joined with the love of her life in a truly heavenly way.

Keep reaching for the stars with the one you love.

Early this week we'll even have a waning full moon to add to the romance. The rest is up to you.

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and author of the new book, "Pennsylvania Starwatch," available at bookstores and at his Website,