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.

March is the last full month to enjoy the full complement of winter constellations in our Butler skies, and Orion the Hunter is still the main attraction.

As darkness sets in later in the evening, the constellation is about halfway up in the southwestern sky, looking very much like a giant hourglass.

Orion is one of the few constellations that doesn't make you stretch your imagination too far out of shape. It does kind of look like a hunter, or at least a big human being, possibly on steroids.

Everybody and their brother has seen the three bright stars in a row that make up Orion's belt, but the biggest shiners are the stars Rigel and Betelgeuse, at Orion's knee and armpit, respectively.

Orion has a lot of celestial friends with him in the southern heavens, a cast that includes Taurus the Bull, located to the upper right of Orion. It looks like a little arrow, with the moderately bright star Aldebaran as the angry eye of the bull.

Taurus' best treasure, though, is the Pleiades star cluster that looks like a mini Big Dipper, made up of hundreds of stars about 100 million years old and about 410 light-years away. It's one of the best things you can see in the winter sky.

Orion also travels through the heavens with the constellations Auriga the Goat Farmer, Gemini the Twins, and Orion's big and little hunting dogs Canis Major and Minor.

This isn't exactly last call, but after March, Orion and his gang will start their gradual slide toward the western horizon. You absolutely owe it to yourself to get out in the dark countryside to see the best of the winter sky. It'll take your breath away!

There are three planets available in the evening sky this month: Venus, Mars and Saturn.

Venus is coming into the evening sky for the rest of 2010. It will be a little tough to spot early in March because it sets in the western sky not long before the end of evening twilight.

Later in the month, it will be setting an hour and a half after sunset and will be easier to spot.

Venus is super bright, but telescopically, it's less than a desirable target because it's completely shrouded in a poison cloud cover. All you see is a brilliant ovalish disk that bounces off a heck of a lot of sunlight.

Mars has been in our evening sky all winter, and at the start of evening, it's shining brightly with a reddish tinge in the high eastern sky. It's the brightest starlike object in that part of the sky.

Unfortunately, Mars is like Venus as far as viewing it with a telescope.

The planet named after the Roman god of war is only about half the size of the Earth and is about 75 million miles away. About all you can see is a copperish red disk and maybe a bit of its white polar cap.

Saturn, however, is a whole different story.

With its wonderful ring system, it's one of the best celestial targets you'll ever point your telescope at.

Saturn reaches its closest approach to the Earth late in March, and early in the month, Saturn rises in the eastern sky after 8 p.m.

I'll have more to say about the ringed wonder of our solar system later.

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 Web site www.lynchandthestars.com.