A diagram of the “winter football.” Submitted photo

If you've been a faithful reader of my Starwatch column, thank you! You also know how much I love the winter constellations strewn out over the southeastern Butler evening sky. I know I’m certainly not the only one. I consider them as a reward for braving cold winter evenings to get out there and make the stars your old friends. I like to call them “Orion and his Gang,” the constellation Orion being the centerpiece.

I do my best to describe how to find your way around Orion’s gang but I know it’s still confusing no matter how hard I try. This week, I'm going to use the method that describes it as the “winter football.” It's also known as the winter circle, winter hexagon or winter oval. Since an oval is the approximate shape of a football and the NFL is working toward the end of the playoffs with the Super Bowl early next month I'm going with the winter football. It's made up of seven easy-to-see bright stars from six different constellations in the early evening southeastern sky.

This year though, tracing the winter football is a bit more complicated because Orion and his gang have a couple of visitors, the bright planets Jupiter and Mars. They aren’t regular players in the winter football but just happen to be drifting in the foreground as they forge along in their respective orbits around the sun. Jupiter is by far the brightest “star” you see in the southeastern heavens. You can’t miss it! The next brightest star-like object you can see to the lower left of Jupiter is Mars, the closest it’s been to Earth in more than two years. You know for sure it’s Mars because it has a distinct orange-red glow to it.

To trace the winter football, we'll kick off with Sirius, the brightest actual star we can see in the southeastern sky and the lowest star. Sirius is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major the Big Dog. It's often referred to as the “Dog Star.” You can't miss Sirius. The famous three belt stars of the constellation Orion the Hunter appear to point to the lower left directly at the Dog Star. Astronomically, Sirius is one of the closest stars to Earth, a mere 50 trillion miles away, give or take.

Next, we’ll take a “pooch punt.” Look for the next brightest star you can see to the upper left of Sirius. That’s Procyon, another major star in our celestial pigskin.

Procyon is the brightest star in the tiny constellation Canis Minor the Little Dog. About all there is to the little pooch is Procyon and a moderately bright star next to it called Gomesia. I like to think of Canis Minor as a little heavenly wiener dog.

From Procyon, keep going to the upper left, and you'll encounter two identically bright stars close to each other. These are appropriately referred to as the twin stars of the constellation Gemini the Twins. They're Castor and Pollux marking the heads of the side by side twins Castor and Pollux. Right next to Pollux the bright planet Mars. Gemini should be part of the winter football because the twins were very athletic in Greek and Roman mythology. I can see them as a quarterback behind a center. Looks can be deceiving with stargazing. Castor and Pollux aren’t just two stars — they are made up of seven stars! Castor looks like a single bright star to the naked eye but it’s actually made up of three pairs of stars, all revolving around each other.

From Castor and Pollux, draw an imaginary line almost straight up, and you'll arrive at the bright star Capella in the constellation Auriga the Charioteer. Capella marks the halftime show in our pursuit of tracing the winter football. Good luck seeing Auriga as a man driving a chariot. It looks much more like a lopsided pentagon. Supposedly Capella marks a mama goat sitting on the chariot driver's shoulder. Go figure!

From Capella, go to the lower right and you'll hit a bull's-eye, literally. It's the reddish star Aldebaran, the brightest star in the constellation Taurus the Bull. Aldebaran marks an angry red eye of the bull's snout that roughly resembles an arrow pointing to the right. Not far from Aldebaran is the bright planet Jupiter. Just above that little arrow that makes up Taurus is a small cluster of stars that resembles a mini version of the Big Dipper. That's the Pleiades star cluster, a group of young stars that were all born together gravitationally. They're over 400 light-years away with just one light-year equaling nearly 6 trillion miles!

From Aldebaran, head down and a little to the right, and you'll reach Rigel, a very bright bluish star that marks the left foot of the mighty constellation Orion the Hunter. Rigel is the second brightest star in the winter football, and by far is the most powerful star. It's almost as bright as Sirius from our view but it's a lot farther away, around 800 light-years from Earth. Just one light-year equals nearly 6 trillion miles!

Just to the lower right of Rigel we arrive back at Sirius. That's it, the Winter Football. It'll be available until April, but head out and tackle it as soon as you can!

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