While we don’t have any Christmas constellations in the Butler night sky, there are two celestial signs of the most wonderful time of the year among the stars.

One is small and challenging to locate, and the other is large and very easy to spot.

First, look for the challenging one. Formally, it’s known as New General Catalog Object 2264, or NGC 2264, in the astronomical books. Its nickname is the Christmas Tree cluster because that’s exactly what it looks like.

What’s nice is the cluster is easily visible through a small telescope or even a decent pair of binoculars.

It’s easier to find in the dark countryside, but you shouldn’t have too much trouble even in light-polluted areas. You have to stay up a little later to see the Tannenbaum, but I know you’ll love it and want to share it with others. It’s so cute, and hopefully, it will add to your holiday spirit!

After 8:30 p.m., the cluster will be high enough above the eastern horizon to start your search. The Christmas Tree cluster resides in a very obscure constellation called Monoceros the Unicorn. To me, Monoceros resembles a ham radio tower my Dad set up on top of the house when I was a kid. Fortunately, you don’t have to find the dim unicorn.

The best way to find the Christmas Tree cluster is to use the bright constellation Orion the Hunter, perched diagonally in the southeastern sky. I know you’ve seen it before. It’s the dominant constellation of winter, containing the three bright stars in a nearly perfect row that make up the belt of the mighty hunter.

On the upper left corner of Orion is Betelgeuse, a bright reddish-tinged star that marks the armpit of the hunter. On the upper right corner of Orion is Bellatrix, not quite as bright as Betelgeuse. Draw a line from Bellatrix to Betelgeuse and continue that line to the lower left about 10 degrees from Betelgeuse. Ten degrees is about the width of your fist held at arm’s length.

Scan that area with your binoculars or telescope and you should be able to find the Christmas Tree cluster pretty quickly. You’ll see about 15 to 20 stars arranged in the shape of a Christmas tree. Oddly, the brightest star is at the base of the tree, not at the top where you would expect it.

The starry little tree will appear to point to the lower right in binoculars and some telescopes. However, most telescopes will give you an inverted view, so the miniature tree will appear to point to the upper left instead.

The Christmas tree shape of the cluster is arguably a pleasant coincidence. The stars just happen to be arranged that way because of our view from Earth.

Like most open clusters, this is a group of young stars. These young star clusters hang together for several hundred million years until gravity from other surrounding stars breaks them up.

The stars that light up the Christmas Tree cluster send their tidings of great joy from a long, long way away! They’ve been waiting a long time for you to see them. They’re about 2,600 light-years distant, with just one light-year equaling nearly six trillion miles. Since a light-year is defined as the distance that light travels in one year, the lights we see from this Christmas tree tonight left those stars in about 600 B.C., 600 years before the birth of Christ.

There’s also an easy-to-find sign of Christmas for the Christian world that shines brightly in the early evening western sky and is easily visible to the naked eye. It’s the Northern Cross, and even in areas of moderately bright city lights, you should have no trouble finding it.

The Northern Cross is the brightest part of a larger constellation called Cygnus the Swan.

Around 7 to 8 p.m., look about halfway up in the western sky for Deneb, the second brightest star you can see in that area of the sky. Just below Deneb, look for three fairly bright stars in a horizontal row that make up the arms of the cross. Below those three stars and closer to the horizon is the slightly fainter star Albireo that marks the base of the Northern Cross.

This is the only time of year that we see the Northern Cross standing nearly upright in the early evening.

Merry Christmas!!!!

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.