As the Earth continues on its never ending journey orbiting around the sun, our evening view of the Butler heavens is turning away from the bright winter constellations and toward the less than awesome spring star patterns on the rise in the east.

The bright winter constellations are still hanging in there in the west, but this is their swan song. Next month most of them will be gone and we won’t see them in the evening again until late next fall.

Many amateur astronomers, including this star lover, agree that until the summer constellations like Cygnus and Scorpio make their appearance, we are officially in the spring doldrums of evening stargazing. But it’s still worth your time to make the stars your old friends. For one thing, it’s a heck of a lot more comfortable out there and the mosquitoes haven’t even begun warming up in the bullpen.

Without a doubt, the best thing to gaze at through your telescope this month is the planet Saturn, on the rise in the evening sky and at its brightest and closest for 2011.

It’s so easy to find. Just look for the brightest starlike object you can see in low southeastern skies and that’s it.

Actually, there’s an actual star just below Saturn that’s almost as bright. That’s Spica, the second brightest star in the large but faint constellation Virgo the Virgin.

In addition to the 136,000 mile-wide ring system that’s tilted at a better angle for us to see it this year, you may see tiny little “stars” sprinkled around Saturn that are actually some of Saturn’s many moons. Recently in the news it was discovered that Rea, Saturn’s second largest moon, may have its own thin ring system, although nowhere near the grandeur of mother Saturn.

The ringed wonder of our solar system is right around 800 million miles from Earth. It’s great through a telescope but it’s better to wait until after 10:30 p.m. or so when it’s higher in the sky and you don’t have to visually pierce through as much of Earth’s blurring atmosphere. I’ll have much more on Saturn late this month in Starwatch.

The Big Dipper is as high as it gets in the sky and it’s upside down. The old lore about the upside down Big Dipper is that it means we get more rain because the Dipper is unloading on us.

It’s easy to see how that rumor got started in the days of old because, at least in the upper Midwest, we get most of our rainfall in the late spring and early summer.

Use the “pointer stars” on the pot section of the Big Dipper opposite the handle to find Polaris, the North Star.

Polaris is about three fist-widths at arm’s length down from the pointer stars. The North Star is the last star in the handle of the much dimmer Little Dipper.

Polaris is also a very important star in our sky. Since it shines directly above the Earth’s North Pole, all of the stars in our sky appear to revolve around the stationary North Star once every 24 hours as the Earth rotates on its axis.

Over in the eastern sky there’s a sideways kite on the rise. It’s the constellation Bootes, which according to the Greeks is supposed to be a farmer.

Seeing Bootes as a farmer takes one heck of a sense of imagination. I prefer the easy way out on this one.

Look for the sideways kite with the bright orange tinged star Arcturus at the tail of the kite. Arcturus is easy to find.

Not only is it the brightest star in that part of the sky, but you can also extend the arc made by the Big Dipper’s handle to find it. Just arc to Arcturus!

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.