In the celestial theater of the Butler night sky there are two hero constellations. In the summer we have Hercules the Hero that rides high in the night sky, and in the winter there’s Perseus the Hero. Perseus is one of the constellations that kind of, sort of looks like what it’s supposed to be.

In the early evening, face the southern horizon and crank your head as high as you can and right around the overhead zenith.

If your back is like mine you can only look straight overhead for so long before varying degrees of pain start setting in. Make life easier on yourself and sit back in a chair. Bring one out from the house if your lawn chairs are still put away until spring. It’s also nice because it’s easier to throw a blanket over yourself to stay extra warm.

Once you’re comfortable with eyes directed toward the zenith, look for a moderately bright formation of stars that roughly resembles a one legged stickman. That’s our hero Perseus.

This formation of stars may also remind you a bit of the scrawny Christmas tree that Charlie Brown brought to his buddies in the classic Charlie Brown Christmas special.

According to Greek mythology, Perseus, the son of Zeus, the Kings of the gods of Mount Olympus, was sent a mission to rid the land of Medusa, an incredibly ugly lady monster.

How ugly was she? As a friend of mine once told me she fell out of the ugly tree and hit every stick on the way down!

Medusa had a bad hair day everyday because instead of strands of hair emerging from her head she had dozens of really aggravated snakes. Medusa didn’t have to rip you limb from limb to hurt you. She was so ugly that all she had to do is have you glance her way and you immediately turned to stone, becoming an instant statue.

Medusa was an early version of a weapon of mass destruction because as she roamed the countryside she could turn the whole population of a village to stone with just one look.

Something had to be done, so Zeus assigned Perseus the task of hunting down Medusa, cutting off her snake littered head and returning it for deposit in a local hazardous waste dump.

Perseus was well armed and prepared. Along with his razor edge sword, he borrowed the winged shoes of Hermes, the messenger of the gods, (his Roman name Mercury) so he could fly to his target. Perseus was also equipped with the magic shield of Athena, the goddess of wisdom so he wouldn’t have to look directly at snake headed Medusa.

I’m not sure how the Athena’s shield worked. I couldn’t find any schematics when I googled it, but somehow it did the job.

Armed with all his magic tools, Perseus flew up in pursuit of Medusa and before too long tracked her down stoning one of the many early subdivisions of

early Athens.Trusting Athena’s shield to precisely navigate to Medusa’s neck, he drew his sword and with one swing lopped off the monster’s despicably ugly cranium.Again using Athena’s magic shield and super heavy duty rubber gloves, he scooped up the head avoiding snake bite and tossed it into an industrial strength hefty bag for the flight home.On his way back from his successful mission, he rescued Princess Andromeda from a hungry sea monster, but that’s a story for another day.As you see in the diagram, the moderately bright star Algol, the second brightest star in Perseus, marks the head of Medusa. Algol is referred to as the “Demon Star” for that reason, but it’s also called that because every 2.8 days it fades by a factor of 30 percent.Algol is an eclipsing binary star. That means it’s actually two stars revolving around each other in a very tight orbit, one a little brighter than the other. When the dimmer star passes in front of the brighter star every 2.8 days Algol fades in brightness for a few hours.Maybe that’s a warning not to look at that demon star for too long or you could get stoned!An absolute must see in the constellation Perseus is the great Perseus Double Cluster, just above the hero’s head and not all that far away from neighboring Cassiopeia.If you’re lucky enough to be stargazing in the countryside you can see it with the naked eye as a misty patch among the stars. If you have to put up with a little light pollution, it’s still a wonderful target with a pair of binoculars or a small telescope. I know you’ll love it!It’s a pair of huge open star clusters made up of about 100 young stars each that were born anywhere from three to six million years ago. Believe it or not, that makes them stellar children.Our own star — the sun — is in middle age at nearly six billion years old.Both clusters are really out there at a distance of 7,000 light years away, with one light-year equaling about six trillion miles. Because they’re 7,000 light years away, the light that we see from them now left those clusters right around 5,000 B.C.!There’s another bright cluster of stars nearby in the constellation Taurus the Bull that I know you’ve seen. It’s the Pleiades, otherwise known as the Seven Little Sisters. It kind of resembles a tiny Big Dipper.The Pleiades are so much brighter than the Perseus Double Cluster because they’re a lot closer at a distance of just more than 400 light years. If you could magically reel in the Perseus Double Cluster from 7,000 light years to the distance of Pleiades, about a quarter of our night sky would be dominated by the twin Perseus clusters. It would really be something to see!Speaking of really something to see, next Friday night, Feb. 11, the first quarter moon will be hunched right next to the Pleiades in a wonderful celestial hug, Don’t miss it! Stay away clouds!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 his website www.lynchandthestars.com