Throughout the year the stars that make up the Butler celestial dome make up a plethora of pictures and patterns.

Most of what we see are the individual constellations that were used by ancient cultures as visual aides to tell tales of mythology that vary from culture to culture. Most of the tales that are best known in this part of the world are spinoffs of Greek and Roman mythology.

While different cultures have their own unique mythology, all the constellations are pictures of the characters that make up these soap operas of the night sky.

What’s also a common thread is that most of these constellations don’t look much like what they’re supposed to portray. As I say at my star parties, you really have to put your imagination into overdrive to see these constellations as to what they’re allegedly supposed to represent. That’s OK though because it’s part of what makes casual stargazing so much fun.

Many constellations also display some pretty unique geometrical shapes and asterisms.

The connecting lines of stars in the constellation Cassiopeia the Queen resembles a giant W in the heavens. The right side of the constellation Leo the Lion outlines a backward question mark. The constellation Auriga the Chariot Driver looks like a lopsided pentagon.

One of the best constellations are the seven stars that make up the rear end and tail of Ursa Major the Big Bear. You see that every clear night as the Big Dipper.

There are much larger asterisms in the sky that use stars from several adjoining constellations. These can be great tools in learning constellations.

One of these, known as the Summer Triangle, is made up of the brightest stars from three separate constellations.

At the corners are: Vega, the brightest star in the constellation Lyra; Deneb, in the constellation Cygnus the Swan; and Altair, a part of Aquila the Eagle. Each one of these stars is the brightest shiner in their home constellation. The Summer Triangle is so easy to see at a glance in the summer and autumn sky and can be a very good tool in helping you find your way around that part of the celestial theater.

Although, the very best asterism of the night sky in my opinion is the Winter Triangle, now on display these late winter evenings in the southern sky. It’s a perfect equilateral triangle made up of three bright stars from three separate constellations.

As you can see in the diagram, it’s made up of Betelgeuse, a part of the constellation Orion the Hunter, Procyon, the brightest star in the constellation small Canis Minor the Little Dog, and Sirius, the brightest star in Canis Major the Big Dog.

Unless you’re viewing from a lit up shopping mall parking lot, you should have no trouble spotting the perfect Winter Triangle because of the brilliancy of its member stars. In fact, Sirius at the bottom of the triad is the brightest star available in the night sky.

Sirius and Procyon are almost twice the diameter of our sun and are more luminous than our home star, but the main reason they’re so bright in our heavenly dome is they’re relatively close to the Earth. Procyon is 11 light years away and Sirius is just more than eight light years in distance.

If you flew to Sirius in a jet airliner averaging 500 mph, it would take you more than 11 million years to get there! They better have meals and movies on that flight.

Sirius can be a whole lot of fun to view through even a small telescope. That’s because it never gets up very high in the sky and its light has to travel through much more of Earth’s blurring atmosphere to reach our eyes. If upper air winds are strong and there’s a lot of turbulence, Sirius can appear as a changing kaleidoscope of colors as its light rays get bounced around.

The third star of the perfect winter is Betelgeuse, featured in Starwatch a few weeks back. The huge star is much more than 500 light years away.

This super red giant star is almost a billion miles in diameter and sooner or later will burst in a colossal supernova explosion, maybe within a million years if you feel like waiting up for it.

Until then, you can see the upper right hand member of the Winter Triangle shining brightly sporting an easily seen reddish hue.

It’s just amazing to me that these three stars that make up the absolute perfectly proportioned Winter Triangle just happen to be positioned that way. Coincidence? Or not?

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.