Okay, raise your hands — who went out and checked out the Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn the other night? Great. I hope you didn’t freeze your buns off! (If you live where it’s cold… ) I went out for a little while and looked at the Moon, but we had partly cloudy conditions, so there wasn’t much else to see. Probably the same for tonight, but I’ll give it the ol’ college try.

When they’re clear, these February nights give us a nice chance to do some prime-time viewing of some “good stuff.” Anybody who’s been reading these pages for a while knows that I like the Orion sector of the sky, probably because I find the Orion Nebula so fascinating. The whole area is a veritable trove of things to look at — including some fine little clusters that you can see with binoculars.

Over in Gemini, down by Castor’s ankle (and not far from Saturn) is the open cluster M35. And there’s another cluster over at the heart of Cancer, called The Beehive. I remember when we were onboard the MS Ryndam a few years ago seeing the Beehive low in the northern sky (we were in South America). It was a different viewpoint than I was used to because I usually see it higher in the sky from our more northern viewpoint in New England. And, for good measure, Orion was tipping over with his head toward the horizon.

Look over at the Hyades in Taurus and you’ll see another open cluster, with the reddish-orange star Aldebaran in the view. And of course, there are the stars at the heart of the Orion Nebula (bringing us back to Orion). The Trapezium comprises the brightest four of hundreds of newborn stars in this starbirth region. It always amazes me to think of a starbirth nursery only 1,500 light-years away from Earth!

These are the best of my winter night favorites, at least until the next time I go out and find something else to look at! That’s the great thing about skywatching — there’s always something new to find along with the old friends!