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.

There's plenty of summer in September evening skies and with earlier sunsets you can get some great stargazing in without a late bedtime.

By mid-September it's dark enough by 8:30 p.m. to do some decent stargazing. Summer mosquitoes are hanging on and there's a little more chill in the air, but all in all you'll have a good time making the stars your old friends.

There's a summer hangover in the evening skies and it's called the "Summer Triangle."

Right after evening twilight, crane your neck to the overhead zenith or better yet, lie back on the ground on a blanket or a reclining lawn chair and look up!

Now that you're more comfortable you should easily see the Summer Triangle overhead. Just look for the three brightest stars you can see and that's it.

Now it's not a constellation per se, but what we in the stargazing business call an "asterism." It's made up of three stars from three separate constellations, each the brightest star of the constellation.

The brightest star of the trio and second brightest star this evening is Vega, the franchise of the small constellation Lyra the Harp. It's a large blue star more than 145 trillion miles away. While Vega is a grand star, there isn't a whole lot to Lyra the Harp. Just look for a small dim parallelogram next to Vega and that's about it.

The next brightest star in the summer triangle is Altair, the brightest in Aquila the Eagle. Altair is at the corner of a big diamond that outlines the wingspan of Aquila, the evil eagle that acted as a hitman, or should I say "hit bird" for Zeus, the king of the gods.

The dimmest member of the Summer Triangle, Deneb, is actually the most noteworthy star of the trio. It's certainly the farthest in distance, around 3,000 light years away, with one light year equaling about 6 trillion miles.

The light we see from Deneb tonight left that star around 1000 BC. When you stargaze, always remember that not only are you looking through tremendous distances, you're looking back through time.

Deneb is the brightest star in the constellation Cygnus the Swan, but more people see Cygnus as the Northern Cross, with Deneb at the head of the cross.

In the low southern skies are the classic summer constellations, Scorpio the Scorpion and Sagittarius the Archer.

Scorpius in the southwestern sky is one of those constellations that actually looks like what it's supposed to be. There's a dark red star Antares at the heart of the beast, more than 600 light years away. The light we see from Antares left that star even before Galileo was born.

To the left of the scorpion in the low southern sky is a constellation that doesn't look like what it's supposed to be. Sagittarius is supposed to be a half man/half horse shooting an arrow, but most stargazers see it by its nickname, the "Teapot."

Sagittarius is also in the direction of the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, more than 60,000 light years away. In the upper left corner of the Teapot's handle is a star called Nunki, pronounced Nun-key. It's one of my favorite star names.

Over in the northwestern sky, the Big Dipper is hanging by its handle, beginning its annual autumn decent in the evening sky. The fainter Little Dipper is standing on its handle in the mid northern sky with Polaris, the North Star at the end of its handle.

Contrary to what you may think, the North Star is not the brightest star in the sky. The brightest star this evening is Arcturus, an orange-tinged star in Bootes the Hunting Farmer. Bootes actually looks more like a kite hanging in the western sky with Arcturus at the tail of the kite.

Just as evening darkness sets in, you'll see what looks like a much brighter star in the west hugging the western horizon.

That's no star, that's Jupiter, our largest planet in the solar system. Even though it's still the brightest starlike object in the sky, Jupiter is much farther away from us Earthlings than it was at the start of summer.

Presently it's about 496 million miles away and falling farther and farther away, eventually slipping behind the sun later this fall.

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.