I know of two sure-fire objects in the night sky that will get anyone turned on to the hobby of stargazing and they're both making an appearance right now.

One is the planet Saturn, with its wonderful ring system. I have a lot more to say about Saturn in next week's Starwatch column as it makes its closest approach to Earth in 2006.

The other great celestial attraction right now in the night skies over Butler is the Great Orion Nebula, a gargantuan stellar factory.

To really enjoy the beauty of the Great Orion Nebula, wait until Tuesday or Wednesday to see it without the light washing effect of our moon. By then the moon will be a lot dimmer in the sky and won't rise until after 8:30 p.m. I guarantee you'll say "WOW!" when you look at the Orion Nebula for the first time, even with the smallest of telescopes or binoculars.

Even to the naked eye it's an impressive looking "fuzzy star" at first glance.

To find that fuzzy star, look for the bright constellation Orion the Hunter in the early evening, rising in the low southeast sky. You can't miss it. Orion's one of those few constellations that actually resembles what it's supposed to be.

Start your search for the great Orion Nebula by looking below those three bright stars in a row that make up the mighty Hunter's belt. Just to the lower left of Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka, you'll see a fainter row of three stars lined up diagonally that make up Orion's sword. Right away you can't help but notice that the middle star of the sword is fuzzy. That's it! You've arrived at Orion Nebula, over 1,500 light-years away with just one light-year equaling almost six trillion miles!

Before you aim your binoculars or your new Christmas telescope at it, I want you to do something. I want you to hold out your hand at arm's length so you can easily cover up the Orion Nebula with the tip of your thumb. That thumb of yours is covering a giant cloud of hydrogen gas, over 30 light-years in diameter. That's almost 180 trillion miles in girth, or about 20,000 times the diameter of our solar system. Your thumb is covering all that up!

OK, now aim your telescope at it. I guarantee you'll love what you're seeing. You may see that the nebula has a greenish tinge to it.Another thing you'll see right away, even with the smallest of telescopes, is four stars that are arranged in a lopsided trapezoid. If your telescope is larger, you may see a fifth star in the trapezoid. Those stars and many, many others that you can't see were all born out of the Orion Nebula. In fact, that giant cloud of gas could produce many more stars in the future, maybe even another 10,000 stars the size of our sun.The four stars that make up what's called the Trapezium are very young hot stars that are probably less than 100,000 years old.One of the stars is estimated to have a surface temperature of 72,000 degrees, more than seven times the temperature of our sun. All that heat and radiation pouring out of these four stars and others cause the surrounding hydrogen gas to glow like a giant neon light. Astronomers refer to this kind of nebula as an emission nebula.The Hubble telescope has even detected developing solar systems around some of the stars of the Orion Nebula, but these potential planets may not come into being. Stellar winds gusting over 5 million miles an hour are constantly blasting away any semblance of developing planet families.In fact, tremendous stellar wind currents from several stars can collide to cause a perfect cosmic storm, otherwise known as complete celestial chaos!The end of your thumb is covering all of that!Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and author of the new book, "Pennsylvania Starwatch," available at bookstores and at his Web sitewww.lynchandthestars.com