I don't know about you, but by this time of February I get really itchy for springtime. Winter has dragged on long enough. But there are signs of spring in Pennsylvania: the daylight hours are increasing, the birds are singing a little more and your income taxes are due in less than two months.

Early in the morning, before twilight, there's even summer in half of your environment — the celestial dome. Between 5 and 6 a.m., the early morning stars and constellations are the same ones we'll see in the evening after twilight on the Fourth of July. Sure it's not as warm as it'll be in July, but at least the mosquitoes are still in their winter slumber.

The constellations we see around here and their placement in the sky is determined by which direction

of

outer space Butler County is facing. That's determined by Earth's 24-hour rotation on its axis and its 365 day orbit around our sun.

It just so happens that in the wee hours of the morning, we're pointed toward the same direction in space as we are in early July in the evening. In fact, any early morning that you check out the celestial dome, you'll get a preview of what the evening sky will look like in another five months.

If it's dark enough where you are, you'll see the bright band of the Milky Way stretch from north to south across the eastern half of the sky. The band is combined light from millions of stars in the thickest part of our Milky Way galaxy. In some Scandinavian cultures, it's referred to as the road to heaven.

The Milky Way band is out on winter evenings, but it's not nearly as bright as it is in the summer sky. During the summer months, the night side of the Earth is facing

the center of our gargantuan city of stars.

In fact, two of my favorite summer constellations, Scorpius and Sagittarius, are in the low southern sky these early mornings.

Both of these constellations are also in the direction of the center of the Milky Way, around 30,000 light years away. If it weren't for thick clouds of gas and dust obscuring our view of the downtown Milky Way, that part of the sky would be perpetually as bright as a full moon.

Scorpius is one of the few constellations that looks like what it's suppose to be, a giant celestial scorpion. There's a bright dark reddish star called Antares that marks the scorpion's heart. The curved tail of the beast drags along the southern horizon.

Sagittarius is to the left of Scorpius in the low southern sky. According to Greek and Roman mythology, it is supposed to be a half man-half horse shooting an arrow. If you have a very active imagination, you'll see the half-beastly archer. But most people see what it really looks like — a giant teapot.

These two summer constellations are bookended by two bright planets. To the upper right of Scorpius' head is Jupiter. You can't miss the largest planet in our solar system. To the upper left of Sagittarius' handle is Venus. It's the brightest star-like object in the sky right now because it's just 40 million miles away.But that's not the only reason it's as bright as it is. Cloud-covered Venus is extremely reflective. Like all planets, Venus emanates no light of its own, but reflects sunlight. And it does so very efficiently. What is really amazing is that we're not even seeing all that much of Venus. It's lying nearly in a line between the Earth and our sun so we only see a thin slice of the planet. Through binoculars you can resolve the crescent shape of Venus and, if you've really been eating your carrots, you might even see the crescent with your naked eye.As an added attraction this week, you'll see the waning crescent moon migrating to the east from morning to morning near Scorpius and Sagittarius. On Thursday morning, you'll see a nice celestial "kiss" between Venus and the moon with the crescent of the moon just 10 degrees to the lower right of crescent Venus.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 Web sitewww.lynchandthestars.com

Sagittarius, which appears low on the southern horizon between 5 and 6 a.m. this time of year, is supposed to look like a half man-half horse shooting an arrow, at least according to the ancient Greeks and Romans. But most people think it looks more like a teapot.