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 to the compass points on the horizon. East and West on this map are not backward. 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 to the lens so you don't lose night vision.

There's no sense sugar coating it: Late fall stargazing in Butler is not for hothouse flowers, but if you bundle up and keep your feet warm, the rewards are heavenly.

Unfortunately for true stargazers, we start out this month with a full moon. The full moon this time of year makes a high arc as it rises in the east around sunset and sets in the west about sunrise, and it whitewashes out all but moderate to bright stars, making it hard to pick out constellations.

Later this week, though, the moon will be pretty much out of the early evening sky.

Believe it or not, in the early evening western sky you can still see the Summer Triangle of stars — Vega, Altair and Deneb, which are the brightest stars in their respective constellations. Deneb, a star possibly more than 1,500 light-years away, is the brightest star in the constellation Cygnus the Swan, otherwise known by its nickname the Northern Cross.

During the holiday season, the cross is standing nearly upright above the northwestern horizon. This is the last call for the Northern Cross and the Summer Triangle, because next month, the night side of the Earth will turn away from that part of space.

The great horse Pegasus is riding high in the south-southwestern sky with Cassiopeia the Queen, the one that looks like a bright "W" in the high northern sky.

The Big Dipper is still very low in the northern sky, but you'll notice from night to night it will gradually get higher, standing diagonally on its handle. The Little Dipper is hanging by its handle above the Big Dipper, with Polaris the North Star at the end of its handle.

Because Polaris is shining directly above Earth's North Pole, it appears all of the stars in the sky revolve around Polaris once every 24 hours, including our sun. If you're a planet watching fan, Jupiter starts the evening in the fairly low southwestern sky. This will be the last month we can really get a good look at it. It's farther and fainter than it was earlier this fall, but it's still worth telescope time.

You should clearly see the disk of the planet, maybe some of the brighter clouds bands that stripe Jupiter and for sure its brighter Galilean moons that look like tiny little stars on either side of the planet.

You might see up to four moons as they change their positions as they orbit the largest planet in our solar system in periods of two to 17 days.

Also, if you stay up really late, you can watch the red planet Mars rising in the eastern sky. In January, Mars will be the closest it has been to Earth in a couple years.