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.

This weekend we go back to Eastern Standard Time, and that’s just fine with me. First off, we get an extra hour of sleep, but more importantly, it’s dark enough for stargazing long before 7 p.m.

Without a doubt, we’re entering the best stargazing season of the year, if you don’t mind a shivering a bit. It’s worth it though, because there’s a lot of great celestial gems waiting for you in the November night sky. Just bundle up.

Over in the western Butler sky there are still a few summer constellations hanging in there. Cygnus the Swan, Lyra the Harp, Aquila the Eagle, Delphinus the Dolphin and a few others are slowly migrating to the west a little more each night, making their slow exit from our celestial stage.

In the high southern sky is the primo autumn constellation Pegasus the Winged Horse, with Andromeda the Princess tagging along.

Turn around and face north and you’ll see old friends such as the Big Dipper, barely above the horizon, and the Little Dipper hanging by its handle higher in the northern sky.

Cassiopeia the Queen, the constellation that looks like a giant sideways W, is proudly showing off her stuff in the high northeast sky. The W outlines the throne of the Queen, and Cassiopeia is tied up in that throne.

She really ticked off Hera, the queen of the gods, by proclaiming she was even more beautiful than Hera’s godly self. So Hera threw Cassiopeia up into the sky, eternally bound to her throne for all to see.

In the eastern sky you’ll really notice a lot of bright stars on the rise after 8 p.m. The later you stay up, the more of these wonderful winter constellations you’ll see.

I call this part of the sky “Orion and his Gang” because the majestic constellation Orion the Hunter is the centerpiece. Orion is up by 10 p.m., but before then you’ll see the Pleiades, the best star cluster in the sky, which looks like a miniature Big Dipper.

Unfortunately, we don’t have any bright planets in the evening sky this month, but if you’re up after 2 a.m. Jupiter and Mars are above the eastern horizon. After 4 a.m. the bright planet Venus dazzles in the low eastern sky.

Later on this month, the Leonid Meteor shower could put on quite a show. It will peak out for us in the early morning skies around Nov. 17.

You may see more than 40 meteors an hour in the dark countryside. I’ll have much more on the Leonids later this month.

Celestial hugging

The great celestial hugging between Venus, Jupiter and Mars continues in the early morning pre-twilight eastern sky. Last week, Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest planets, had their closest embrace with Mars just to lower left.

Early this week, Venus and Mars snuggle up to each other separated by just more than one degree with Jupiter just above them. They’ll be in their tightest embrace this coming Wednesday morning.

With a pair of binoculars you can see Venus and Mars in the same field of view, and maybe even Jupiter, too.

Through binoculars or a small telescope Venus will resemble a half moon, and they’ll be tiny little stars on either side of Jupiter that are the big planet’s largest moons. You might even see some of Jupiter’s cloud bands.

Even though the planets are close in the sky, they’re actually very far apart. They just happen to be in the same line of sight.

Venus is the closest at 69 million miles away, Mars is 202 million miles away and giant Jupiter is more than 551 million miles distant.

Don’t miss the great morning planet show!

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