To use the map above for stargazing, cut it out and attach it to a stiff backing. Hold it over your head and line up the compass points on the map to the compass points on the horizon where you are observing from. East and West on this map are not backward. This is not a misprint. When you hold this map over your head, east and west will be in their proper positions. Additionally, use a small flashlight and attach a piece of red cloth or red construction paper over the lens of the flashlight. You won't lose your night vision when you look at this map in red light.

Winter stargazing, in my opinion, is simply the best over Butler.

There's so much beauty in the heavens this time of year, but there's also so much cold. Dress for the cold because it is so worth it. Have a big thermos of something warm with you if you're out for an extended night making the stars your old friends.

One of my best weapons against the cold is those instant chemical heat hand and feet warmers that work seven to eight hours. Put those magic little bags of heat in your gloves and boots and you're good to go. You can buy these at most sporting goods stores. I never go without them when I teach at one of my stargazing parties.

Once armed with your winter survival gear, get out and enjoy the best stargazing of the year.

You'll notice the eastern half of the sky has many more bright stars than the west. During the past couple months, the last of the summer constellations have slowly sunk lower and lower in the west and now they are gone, not to be seen again in the evenings until next June. They didn't move, but we did.

As the Earth continues its annual circuit around the sun, the nighttime side has now turned away from the stars of summer.

The dominant constellation of autumn, Pegasus the giant winged horse, is still hanging in there in the west. Look for the distinct great square, which is actually a rectangle that makes up the torso of the mighty flying horse.

With a good pair of binoculars or a small telescope, scan about halfway between the Pegasus and the bright "W" that makes up the constellation Cassiopeia the Queen, and see if you can spot the Andromeda Galaxy.

It's our Milky Way galaxy's next-door neighbor. All you'll really see is a faint little smudge, but that little smudge is a whole other galaxy, one and a half times the size of our own, more than two million light-years away.

If you're new to astronomy, one light-year equals almost six trillion miles!

The eastern sky is lit up like a Christmas tree. There are many bright stars and constellations. I call this part of the heavens "Orion and his gang."

The star — or should I say star group — of the big show is the mighty constellation Orion the Hunter.

The mighty hunter looks like a sideways bow tie rising diagonally in the southeastern sky. What really jumps out at you are the three bright stars in a perfect row that make up Orion's belt. There also is the bright star Rigel at Orion's knee and Betelgeuse at his armpit. By the way, keep your eye on this star, because sometime in the next million years or so, Betelgeuse could explode in a tremendous supernova explosion.

Elsewhere in Orion's gang, there's Auriga, the retired chariot driver with the bright star Capella.

There's also Taurus the bull with the little arrow pointing to the right, which outlines the face of the bull with the reddish star Aldebaran as the angry red eye of the beast.

Just above Taurus is the Pleiades, a beautiful bright cluster of stars that resembles a tiny Big Dipper. The Pleiades is made up of more than 100 young stars, probably less than 100 million years old.

If you stay out after 8:30 p.m., you'll see a really bright star on the rise in the southeast. That's Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky at any time throughout the year.

If you draw a line through Orion's belt and extend it to the lower left, it will point right at Sirius, a little more than eight light-years away.

As far as planets this first month of 2010, one is coming and one is going.

As soon as it's dark enough, you can see the bright planet Jupiter shining in the low southwestern sky.

Don't wait too long into the evening to check out Jupiter because it's heading for the celestial exits. The biggest planet in our solar system slips below the southwest horizon by about 8 p.m.

If you have that new Christmas telescope, give Jupiter a look see, but don't expect too much. Because it's so low in the sky, its light has to pierce through a lot more of the Earth's atmosphere, and that really muddies up Jupiter's image through your scope. You should see at least the fuzzy disk of Jupiter and up to four little "stars" on either side of the great planet that are four of its largest moons. They're always changing positions as they orbit Jupiter in periods of two to 17 days.

By the way, when you're using that new scope, make sure you let it and all the eyepieces sit outside for at least a half-hour to let the optics adjust to the cold.

Meanwhile, the red planet Mars is on the rise in the east and is getting closer and closer to the Earth. Actually, Earth and Mars are moving closer and closer to each other. They'll have their closest encounter with each other on Jan. 29 when they will be less than 67 million miles apart, the closest we've been to our Martian neighbor in more than two years.

There's no mistaking Mars as it rises above the eastern horizon. You should see it easily by about 9 p.m. It's by far the brightest starlike object in that part of the sky, and it has a definite red tinge. Stay tuned to this column this month for more news on the great 2010 Mars invasion!

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and is author of the book, "Pennsylvania Starwatch," available at bookstores and at his Web site www.lynchandthestars.com.