When you're trying to make the stars your old friends and getting to know your way around the constellations over Butler, you need all the help you can get. Asterisms can be excellent tools to get the job done.

Asterisms are large and obvious formations of stars that are very easy to find. They are not counted among the official constellations in the night sky, but they're a heck of a lot easier to find because they're all made up of bright stars and jump right out at you. They can be either part of a constellation or made up of several constellations.

One example of an asterism is the Big Dipper, now hanging by its handle in the northwestern sky. The Dipper makes up the rear end and tail of the constellation Ursa Major, the Latin name for the Big Bear. Its stars are by far the brightest members of Ursa Major and can be seen even in light-polluted skies.

The Big Dipper is the first step to seeing the rest of the Big Bear. It also acts as an excellent pointer to other constellations. For instance, if you extend the curve or arc of the Big Dipper's handle beyond the end of the handle with your mind's eye, you'll run right into Arcturus, the brightest star in the summer evening sky, shining proudly high in the west. Arcturus is also the brightest star in the constellation Bootes the Hunting Farmer.

The best asterism of summer is aptly named the Summer Triangle, and it's one of the biggest asterisms in the sky. Face yourself toward the east and look for the three brightest stars you can see. That's it! Those three stars are at the corners of the Summer Triangle. Each star is the brightest in its constellation, making it easier to locate the three different constellations.

The brightest and highest star in the Summer Triangle is Vega. It’s the second brightest star in the summer evening sky and also a historic star. In the early ’80s, it was discovered that Vega has a "dusty" ring around it, which is thought to be the start of a developing solar system. The movie “Contact,“ starring Jodie Foster, featured Vega with a planetary system.

Vega is 26 light years away from Earth, with one light year equaling nearly six trillion miles. A light year is defined as the distance light travels in a year, meaning the light we see from Vega tonight left that luminary when Bill Clinton was our President in 1997.

Vega is the brightest star in the puny little constellation Lyra the Lyre (pronounced liar, honestly!). A lyre is a type of small harp, and how the constellation looks like a harp may be a bit of a stretch. Vega and a small parallelogram of fainter stars to the lower right are all there is to Lyra.

The next brightest star you see to the lower left of Vega is Deneb in the lower left corner of the Summer Triangle. Deneb is the brightest star in the constellation Cygnus the Swan. Within Cygnus is a small asterism called the Northern Cross because it looks like a sideways cross with Deneb at the top of it. To make it into a swan, make Deneb the tail of the Swan and the star Albireo at the foot of the cross the head of the big heavenly bird. Then extend both ends of the crosspiece to make a curved wingspan, and there you have Cygnus the Swan on the wing.

Deneb may be the faintest of the Summer Triangle stars, but that's only because it's so far, far away, at least 1500 light-years away! It's a humongous star that could be over 175,000 million miles in diameter. Our sun isn't even a million miles in diameter. The light we see from Deneb tonight left that star in 500 AD.

By the way, the star Albireo at the foot of the Northern Cross (or the head of the Swan) is the best double star in the sky. Even with a small telescope, the seemingly mundane star reveals itself as a gorgeous colorful pair about 400 light years away. One star is a pale orange, and the other is a very distinct blue. Don't miss it!

The star on the lower right-hand corner of the Summer Triangle is Altair, the brightest star in the constellation Aquila, the headless eagle. Altair and four other stars form a large vertical diamond that outlines the eagle's wingspan. Altair is the closest to us of the Summer Triangle stars at a little more than 16 light years away. What's really unusual about Altair is that it rotates once on its axis in only ten hours, and it takes our sun about a month to accomplish the same thing. Because of its rapid spin, Altair is much wider at its equator than its poles. You can't tell by looking at it, even with a large backyard telescope.

There you have it, the Summer Triangle. It covers a large chunk of the summer sky. Along with helping you find the three constellations within it, you can also use it to easily find nearby constellations like Hercules the Hero, Draco the Dragon, Delphinus the Dolphin, and many more.

Don’t go stargazing this time of year without it!

Celestial Happening this week: For you early morning risers, check out the close conjunction between the last quarter waning moon and the bright planet Jupiter in the low eastern sky. Jupiter is the brightest star-like object in that part of the sky.

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