Among the constellations seen from Earth throughout the course of the year there are heroes, hunters, musical instruments, royalty, and all kinds of critters including eight birds.

The biggest and brightest bird constellation seen from Butler is Cygnus the Swan, flying high overhead as we approach the first day of astronomical autumn.

The bright star at the tail of the high-flying swan is Deneb, one of the stars of the "Summer Triangle" which is nearly overhead right after dark tonight.

The other Summer Triangle stars are Vega and Altair, the brightest stars of their respective constellations, Lyra the Harp and Aquila the Eagle. Just look for the three brightest stars you can see straight overhead and that's it!

If you face south as you gaze up at the Summer Triangle, the star on the left corner of the triangle is Deneb. It's also the dimmest of the triangle but by no means is it a puny star.

Quite the contrary; it's a fantastically huge star at least 1,500 light years away, but some astronomers argue that it may be even more distant. In case you haven't heard, just one light-year equals almost six trillion miles.

Light years are also a measure of time. Even if Deneb is just 1,500 light years away, the light we see from it tonight left that star around 500AD! It's not likely, but if Deneb were to explode very violently tonight in a supernova event, our great great great great…... grandkids wouldn't see the explosion until the year 3500.

Can you imagine what kind of crazy things will be on TV by then?

According to the latest data, Deneb may have a diameter as high as 300 million miles. Our own sun is puny by comparison, with a diameter of only 864,000 miles. Deneb is also estimated to kick out about 60,000 times more light than our sun.

Cygnus the Swan contains within it a pattern of stars called the Northern Cross. In fact it's much easier to find the Northern Cross before looking for the Swan. Deneb sits at the head of the cross, and if you're facing south the cross will be overhead leaning to the left.

At the foot of the cross is the not so impressive star Albireo, at least to the naked eye. However, with a small telescope you'll see Albireo is not just one star but a beautiful pair of stars, one gold and the other blue. It's one of the best double stars of the sky.

To expand on the Northern Cross and find the entire swan is easy; just look for the stars at either end of the arms of the cross and turn them into the wings of Cygnus the Swan. Deneb becomes the tail of the giant swan and Albireo becomes the swan's head.

I love the Greek mythology story of how Cygnus got in the sky. It's a sad one, although it has a somewhat happy ending.

According to Greek myth, Apollo was one of the most important gods of Mount Olympus. After all he was the god of the sun, with the very important job of guiding the sun chariot across the sky day after day after day.

The chariot was pulled gallantly across the sky by a fleet of flying white horses. The sun rode inside the giant glass chariot. Apollo loved his job and was rewarded handsomely by Zeus, the king of the gods.

Apollo was quite a playboy in his youth but eventually settled down for the most part, got married and had lots of children, in and out of his marriage. Let's put it this way, Apollo was no saint! I'll leave those stories for another time. Children read this column, if you know what I mean.

One of the sun god's children was Phaethon, who at age 10 idolized his dad and very much wanted to eventually take the reins of the sun chariot when Apollo retired.

Phaethon begged and begged his dad to let him take the sun chariot for a ride but Apollo said no. His child was just too young. Phaethon, though, was convinced he could handle it. He often rode along with his father and studied his driving techniques. He just knew he could do it. Well, one morning temptation set in, and disaster quickly followed.

Apollo's alarm clock didn't go off for some reason or another and the sun god overslept.

Phaethon was up early that morning and saw what was going on. At first he thought that he should immediately roust his dad out of bed, but on his way to do so he saw the sun chariot inside its hanger.

Temptation set in. This was his chance! He turned toward the chariot, climbed in, backed it out of the hanger and bellowed out a "giddy up!" to the flying horses. Before he knew it he was airborne with the sun chariot and flying quite well.

He would have been just fine but he started to hotdog it with the sun, zigzagging and pulling celestial wheelies with the chariot.

He soon lost control and the sun chariot was on its way to a horrible crash.

From Mount Olympus Zeus saw what was happening and took immediate action. He thought some scoundrel had stolen the chariot, not knowing it was his grandson in the driver's seat.

He shouted down to Apollo, finally waking him, and then shot a lightning bolt at Phaethon, spearing him out of the driver's seat and on the way to a fatal plunge. With the sun chariot totally out of control and within minutes of crashing, Apollo quickly borrowed his sister Diana's moon chariot to catch up with his sun chariot and soon had it under control.

Phaethon swan dived into the river Po and drowned. Other gods recognized the body when it surfaced and took great pity on him. At that instant they magically transformed his body into the beautiful constellation we see today as Cygnus the swan.

Phaethon, now Cygnus, is diving again, this time on his way to the northwestern horizon.

Celestial Hugging Update: If you're up and around very early in the morning this week check out the bright planet Venus in the northeastern sky.

You can't miss it since it overwhelmingly outshines anything else in the predawn sky. If you look carefully, you'll see that Venus has company. The moderately bright star Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo will be in very close company with Venus. Don't miss it.

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.