We start out this month with Jupiter still visible in the Butler western sky at the start of evening, but just barely.

In fact, if you want a look at it through your telescope do it as soon as evening twilight ends. If you wait much later than that, Jupiter will be so low in the western sky that it will get blurred up by the Earth’s thicker layer of atmosphere.

Even before that happens, Jupiter won’t be nearly as big and bright as it was in autumn, because it’s much farther away at a distance of more than half a billion miles.

Nonetheless, you should easily resolve the disk of the planet with your telescope and maybe some of the darker cloud bands that stripe the largest planet in our solar system. You’ll see up to four of its larger “Galilean” moons that circle the great planet in periods of two to 17 days.

Some nights you can’t see all four because one or more of them may be behind Jupiter or lost in the glow in the foreground of the behemoth planet.

Starwatching is wonderful this month. In fact, this is one of the best times of the year. Bundle up and see what I mean.

It’s a fabulous show, especially if you can get away from the city lights in the countryside. Maybe you already live out there, and if you do, I’m jealous!

Even if you have to put up with urban lighting you can still see a lot of bright stars and constellations, especially in the southern half of the sky. The constellation Orion the Hunter and the gang of bright constellations surrounding him are the main celestial event.

There’s Orion himself, surrounded by his cast of characters like Taurus the Bull; Auriga, the retired Chariot Driver turned goat farmer; Gemini the Twins; Lepus the Killer Rabbit; Canis Minor, the Little Dog; and Canis Major, the Big Dog.

At the nose of the Big Dog is Sirius, the brightest star we see in the entire night sky anytime of the year, shining brightly over 50 trillion miles away or about 8.5 light years.

You would think with the log jam of bright stars and constellations in the winter sky that we would be facing toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy.

Actually, though, we’re facing away from the galactic center looking in the direction of the edge of our galaxy.

Toward the edge of our galaxy, however, there happens to be one of the brighter arms of our Milky Way. The nighttime side of the Earth faces the Milky Way’s center in the summertime. Without a doubt the stars of summer, especially late summer, are wonderful but nowhere near as dazzling as the winter constellations — and there’s no mosquitoes in the winter!

There’s even a sign of Spring in the February skies with the first early evening appearance of the constellation Leo the Lion.

Leo resembles a backward question mark in the eastern sky. You’ll get a lot better look at it later in the evening as it rises higher.

Just to the lower left of Regulus, the brightest star of Leo at the bottom of the question mark, is the wonderful ringed planet Saturn that reaches its closest point to the Earth later this month. Even with the smallest of telescopes you should be able to see the ring system of Saturn, especially later in the evening as it rises above the blurring atmospheric sludge near the horizon.

Remember to let your telescope sit outside for at least half an hour before you use it to let the optics adapt to the cold winter air.

Instructions

To use this map, 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’re observing from. East and west on this map are not backward. This is not a misprint. I guarantee that when you hold this map over your head, east and west will be in their proper positions.

Also, use a small flashlight and attach a red piece of 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.

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 www.lynchandthestars.com.