I think February stargazing is the best. It’s the best stargazing of the year in Butler, not so much for the personal comfort of the stargazer, but for the wonderful celestial jewels that await you in the evening heavens.

Button up that overcoat, grab that thermos of something warm and prepare to be dazzled. If you’re not already lucky enough to be out in the countryside, away from city lights, try to get out there; but even if you’re restricted to urban stargazing you’ll still like what you see.

You might want to hold off on heavy duty stargazing excursions until late next weekend, or even early next week, because we have a full moon this week.

After this week, the moon won’t rise until very late at night and you can really take in those magical dark skies, especially if you can get away from the glare of the city lights.

If you want to train that Christmas telescope on a planet, this February is a great time to do it because Jupiter, the king of the planets, is at its closest approach to the Earth for 2015. Jupiter will be around 400 million miles away, which, believe it or not, is close for the 88,000 mile-wide planet.

As soon as it’s dark enough, look for a super bright star rising above the eastern horizon. It’s the brightest shiner in that part of the sky.

Jupiter is a lot of fun to direct even a small telescope at, but I really recommend that you wait until after 9 p.m. By then, Jupiter will be high enough in the sky that you won’t have to look through as much of Earth’s atmospheric shell. It really makes a difference.

Through even a small scope you can clearly see up to four of its brighter moons that resemble tiny stars on either side of the planet’s disk. Because they orbit Jupiter in periods of 2 to 17 days, the moons are constantly changing positions and regularly pass in front of or behind the largest planet in our solar system.

You may even see some of Jupiter’s cloud bands that stripe the planet. I’ll have much more on Jupiter later on this month in Skywatch.

Early in the evening, right after twilight, you can check out the celestial hugging shaping up between Venus and Mars in the low southwest sky. They are about eight degrees apart, slightly less than the width of your fist held at arm’s length. Later on this month they’ll be much closer. Stay tuned.

Unlike Jupiter, you can’t really see much detail on either planet because of Mars’ distance and the opaque cloud cover on Venus. Face south and you’ll be anything but bored. You’ll get an eyeful of what I call “Orion and his gang.”

The majestic constellation Orion the Hunter is standing more or less upright above the southern horizon.

Its visual calling cards are the three distinctive belt stars lined up so perfectly and the bright stars Rigel and Betelgeuse.

To the upper right of my favorite constellation is the constellation Taurus the Bull with the Pleiades star cluster.

To the upper left of Orion is the constellation Gemini the Twins and directly overhead is Auriga the Charioteer that looks like a lopsided pentagon.

To the lower left of Orion is the bright star Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, and also the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major, the Big Dog. Draw a line through the three stars in Orion’s belt and extend that line to the lower left and it will point right at Sirius. Sirius is a Greek name that means “the scorcher.”

To the upper left of Canis Major is Canis Minor, which honestly isn’t much of a constellation, but it is the home of another bright star, Procyon. Connect Procyon, Sirius and Betelgeuse and they make an absolutely perfect triangle aptly dubbed “The Winter Triangle,” one of the coolest things to see in the cold winter sky.

In the northern sky, the Big Dipper is standing up on its handle and Cassiopeia the Queen is high in the north near the overhead zenith. It’s as bright as the Big Dipper and looks like an upside down “W” that outlines the throne of Queen Cassiopeia.

In the eastern sky there’s a sign of spring. Look for the diagonal backward question mark that outlines the chest and head of Leo the Lion. The bright star at the bottom of the question mark is Regulus. Leo will eventually lead in the springtime constellations.

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul and is author of the book, “Stars, a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and at www.adventurepublications.net.