Evening stargazing has lost its chill, but to be honest, it's also lost some of its thrills.

Many bright winter constellations are already below the Butler horizon at nightfall, not to be seen again in the evening until next autumn.

From May until about mid-June, the evening sky is in a bit of an intermission between the bright stars and constellations of winter and the great star patterns of summer.

Don't get me wrong, though. There are still many magnificent jewels in the May night sky, although they're a little more subtle. You need to visually dig a little harder for some of them.

If you enjoy warm, moonlit evenings, you'll love the month of May.

The month opens with a waxing gibbous moon that blossoms into a full moon on May 5. The May full moon is probably best known as the Flower Moon.

As lovely as full moons are, they whitewash the sky, making it tough to see dimmer stars and celestial treasures.

One of the victims of the extra moonlight this month is the annual Eta Aquarids meteor shower. It peaks during the early morning hours of May 5, 6 and 7, from a little after midnight to just before morning twilight.

Normally you would see 10 to 20 meteors or "shooting stars" an hour, but you won't see as many this year because of the waning full moon backlighting the heavens. I think it's still worth a look, and it's a great way to start the day!

A really cool thing about the Eta Aquarids is that the meteors are produced by debris left in the wake of Halley's Comet. The debris gets incinerated when it enters Earth's atmosphere.

The planet Venus is beaming very brightly in the early evening western sky. You can't miss it, as it's by far the brightest star-like object in the sky. It sets about three hours after sunset.

Venus is so brilliant because of its very reflective cloud cover and the fact that it's so close to the Earth. At the start of May, it's less than 90 million miles away, and at month's end, less than 70 million miles.

As bright as Venus is, it's not much of a telescope target because of its dense and complete cloud cover. Venus is fun to observe because it goes through phases just like our moon since its orbit around the sun lies within Earth's orbit. The planet Mercury also goes through phases for the same reason.

At the start of the month, Venus will resemble an oval-shaped gibbous moon; at the end of the month, you'll see a half Venus, just like a first-quarter half-moon.

The only other easy-to-see planet in the May evening sky is Mars, a little higher in the early evening western sky and to the upper left of Venus. Mars is much fainter than Venus, and it's too far away and too tiny in the sky to be a decent telescope target. About the most you'll see is an orange-ish dot.

Throughout May, Mars and Venus gradually approach each other on their way to a close celestial conjunction in June. From May 22 to 24, the new crescent moon will pass by Venus and Mars, making for a lovely sight.

We still have some winter constellation holdouts like Gemini and Auriga in the low west-northwest sky after evening twilight, but all in all, spring constellations have taken control.

You should have no trouble finding the bright constellation Leo the Lion in the high south-southwest. The right side of Leo is a distinctive backward question mark of stars that outlines the head and chest of the cosmic lion.

At the bottom of the question mark is Leo's brightest star, Regulus, which denotes the lion's heart.

In the north, the Big Dipper is riding high and upside down at the start of the month. By month's end, it'll appear to be hanging by its handle. Technically the Big Dipper is the rear end and tail of the constellation Ursa Major, the Big Bear.

Elsewhere in the northern sky is the Little Dipper, lying on its handle, with the North Star, Polaris, at the end of the handle. The Little Dipper is more formally known as Ursa Minor, the Little Bear. There's also Cassiopeia the Queen, resembling a big W, in the low northwestern sky.

In the high eastern sky, the brightest star you can see is Arcturus. It's the brightest shiner in the constellation Bootes the Farmer and one of the brightest stars in the entire night sky. Bootes looks more like a giant kite with Arcturus marking the tail. According to Greek mythology, Bootes the Farmer is hunting down Ursa Major, the Big Bear.

Enjoy the warmer stargazing this month!

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and retired broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is the author of "Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations," published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and adventurepublications.net. Contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.