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.

The best stargazing will be during the first couple of weeks of April for several reasons.

For one thing we won’t have as much moonlight in the sky messing up the darkness. All we’ll have is a slowly growing crescent moon in the evening sky.

Secondly, for about the first half of April the constellation Orion and his entourage of other constellations with bright stars will still be very prominent in the early evening Butler western sky. You can’t help but see those three distinct stars that make up the belt of Orion, the mighty hunter of the heavens.

There are many great constellations that peruse our celestial dome through the course of the year, but as far as I’m concerned Orion is the king. It’s one of the few constellations that actually looks like what it’s supposed to be.

No matter how much light pollution you have to put up with Orion is easily visible. Without too much imagination you can see the torso of a muscular man with the bright star Rigel marking his left knee, and Betelgeuse, a bright and noticeably orange star, at his right armpit.

At nightfall, which is considerably later in April, Orion starts out in the southwestern sky, leaning to the right. Surrounding Orion is his gang of bright constellations that really jump out at you.

Orion’s stellar family includes Taurus the Bull, resembling a small downward pointing arrow; Auriga the chariot driver turned goat farmer, Gemini the Twins; and Canis Major and Canis Minor, Orion’s large and small hunting dogs respectively.

This is the swan song for Orion’s gang. As April slides toward May, Orion and his stellar cast will open each evening closer and closer to the western horizon. By the end of April most of the starry entourage of winter will already be below the horizon as the darkness of evening sets in. We’ll see Orion’s gang again in the evening around early November in the eastern heavens.

In the high northern sky, the Big Dipper is putting on quite a show, hanging upside down in the early evening. One of the old yarns is that we have more rain in the spring because the Big Dipper is upside down, dumping on us Earthlings.

As bright and distinct as the Big Dipper is, it’s not a constellation all by itself, but rather the rear end and tail of the constellation Ursa Major, otherwise known as the Big Bear.

Over in the eastern sky the main constellation attraction is Leo the Lion, another one of those rare constellations that resembles what it’s supposed to be.

The constellation actually comes in two parts. The upper right side is an easy-to-see backward question mark leaning to the left that outlines the chest and head of the big celestial cat. The moderately bright star that makes up the period of the question mark is Regulus, marking the heart of the Lion.

To the lower left of the starry query symbol is a fairly bright triangle that makes up the rear and tail of Leo.

Over in the low southeast sky is one of those constellations that doesn’t look anything like what it’s supposed to be. It’s Corvis the Crow, and all there is to it are four stars that make a lopsided trapezoid. Good luck seeing that as a crow. There’s also a giant kite rising not far away in the low eastern sky. That’s the constellation Bootes the Farmer, with the bright star Arcturus at the tail of the big kite.

The only planet we have available in the early evening sky all month is Mars, just to the west of the star Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus the Bull. Unfortunately it’s not much of a telescope target because Earth and Mars have pulled far away from each other in their respective orbits around the sun.

At the start of this month Mars is nearly 200 million miles from the sun, so it won’t look like much more than an orange-red dot even through medium to larger telescopes.

Meanwhile, planets are aplenty in the early morning predawn sky. I’ll have more on that next week.

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is also the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and at adventurepublications.net. Contact Mike Lynch at mikewlynch@comcast.net.