It's time to get out and enjoy the absolute beauty of the autumn night sky over Butler.

We're entering the prime time of stargazing season. The nights are longer and with less moisture in the air the skies are generally more transparent. Even if you're not a big time stargazing fan, you owe yourself the treat of lying back on a reclining lawn chair, with enough on to keep you warm, and taking in the celestial happenings.

The dark skies of the countryside are best, but it's even a great show right from your backyard.

For the next several nights however, your stargazing adventures will be mooned. The harvest moon of 2009 will obliterate all but the brighter stars as it hogs up the night sky.

As much as I like exploring the intricacies of heavens I truly love the beauty of any full moon, especially the harvest moon. It's called a harvest moon because it's the nearest full moon to the autumnal equinox, otherwise known as the first day of autumn. That occurred on Sept. 22. Because of the timing of the moon's cycle this year the harvest moon is a little later than average.

One of the unique aspects of the harvest moon is that from night to night as it begins to wane and shrink, the moon rises just 30 minutes later each night. Usually the moon rises about 50 minutes later each evening. The reason this happens is a little too complicated to go into here but it has to do with the angle of full moon's path in our skies near the time of autumnal equinox.

The brightest "star" we have in the sky is already well up in the southeastern sky as darkness begins. That's actually the planet Jupiter which is slowly starting to distance itself a little more from Earth.

It's still a stupendous telescope target, though. With just a glance through even a small telescope you can see the disk of the giant planet and its surrounding moons that look like tiny little stars.

They change positions from night to night as they orbit the mother planet, and depending where they are you can see up to four of them. You might also be able to see some of Jupiter's horizontal cloud bands but when looking through a telescope you have to practice patience.

As the early evening begins there's a lot of heat still rising from the ground that can muddy up the atmosphere between you and Jupiter. It usually gets better as the evening rolls on. Also, take long continuous looks at Jupiter through your scope and you're bound to see more detail as your eye gets use to the light level in your scope. Try to keep your eye in the eyepiece for at least five minutes at a time.

As far as the actual stars and constellations of October, there are still a lot of the stars of summer hanging on in the western sky.

You can still easily see the famous "Summer Triangle" high above the western horizon with the three bright stars from three separate constellations. The brightest shiner is Vega in the constellation Lyra the Harp.

In second place for brilliance is Altair in Aquila the Eagle. The third brightest nuclear fusion furnace is Deneb in another bird constellation, Cygnus the Swan. Cygnus is also known by a lot of stargazers as the "Northern Cross," because at first glance, that's what it really looks like.

Deneb is at the top of the cross and below you can see three dimmer stars that make up the crosspiece of the cross. Roll your eyes a little ways below the crosspiece and look for an equally bright star at the foot of the cross.

Albireo is the name of that star and it's definitely one you want to look at with binoculars or a small telescope. We're talking some serious eye candy here. When you zoom in on Albireo you'll think you're seeing double.

You are!

Albireo is a gorgeous double star. One star is gold and the other is blue and you can really see these colors. The two stars look like they are right next to each other but they're actually light years apart. They just happen to be in the same line of sight.

The Big Dipper is upright and riding low in the northwestern sky. In fact, it's getting so low that it's hard to see if you have a high tree line. The Big Dipper is the most famous star pattern there is, but it's technically not a constellation. The Big Dipper is actually the rear end and the tail of the constellation Ursa Major, the Big Bear. It's also the brightest part of the Big Bear.

One of the pieces of star lore I love involves the Big Bear and the nearby constellation Bootes, the hunting farmer. Bootes by this time of the year is only partially visible above the northwest horizon but this farmer Bootes has been hunting down the Big Bear all summer. He's finally laid some pretty good shots into the beast and that's why it's falling so low in our sky.

In fact the Big Bear is bleeding and as the blood falls on the trees and bushes it causes them to turn red. Forget about the leaves losing their chlorophyll. This is how we actually get our fall colors ... wink-wink, nod-nod.

Over in the eastern skies is the grand constellation Pegasus, the winged horse. Just to upper left of Pegasus is the Andromeda Galaxy.

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and author of the book, "Pennsylvania Starwatch," available at bookstores and at his Web site www.lynchandthestars.com