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's horizon to the actual direction you're facing. East and West on this map are not backward. This is not a misprint. 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.

It’s really autumn now, and it’s a really wonderful time to get out and enjoy the absolute beauty of the night sky.

We’re entering the prime time of the stargazing season. The nights are longer, the mosquitoes are pretty much toast and with less moisture in the air the skies are clearer.

Even if you’re not a big time stargazing fan, you owe yourself the treat of lying back on a reclining lawn chair and taking in the celestial happenings. The dark skies of the countryside are best, but it’s even a great show right from your backyard.

Even though it’s autumn, summer is hanging on in the western sky. You can still easily see the famous “Summer Triangle” high above the western horizon, made up of three bright stars from three separate constellations.

There’s Vega in the constellation Lyra the Harp; Altair in Aquila the Eagle; and Deneb, the brightest star, in Cygnus the Swan. Cygnus is also known by stargazers as the “Northern Cross.” Deneb is more than 1,500 light-years away.

Also, because a light-year is defined as the distance a beam of light travels in a year’s time in the vacuum of space, the light we see tonight from Deneb left that star back in the year 500.

In the north, the Big Dipper is upright and riding low in the northwestern sky. In fact, it’s getting so low that it’s hard to see if you have a high tree line.

The Big Dipper is the most famous star pattern there is, but technically it’s not a constellation. The Big Dipper is actually the rear end and the tail of the constellation Ursa Major, the Big Bear. It’s also the brightest part of the Big Bear.

Also, if you’re far enough away from the city lights you may see the bright Milky Way Band, the thickest part of our home galaxy, stretching from the northeast to southwest horizon. Make the stars your old friends before you need a heavy coat!

But the biggest show in October is the big guy in our solar system, the planet Jupiter.

Early this month, Jupiter rises about an hour after sunset, but by the end of the month it’ll rise right around sunset. By that time it’ll be in what astronomers call opposition: when the moon and Jupiter are at their minimum distance for 2011 at less than 370 million miles away.

There’s no way you can miss it this month. It’ll be by far the brightest starlike object in the sky.

I’ll have much more on Jupiter later this month in Skywatch.