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Click to close M42, the Great Orion Nebula

Ah, spring is almost here. It arrives at 11:48 p.m. on March 19. Daylight Saving Time predates spring, returning on Sunday, March 8, and confusing the time frame: no more "spring forward."

I confess: I've been suffering from cabin fever, eager for warmer weather, particularly warmer nights. Each winter, these old bones have more trouble hanging out with the telescope in the cold - though gloriously dark - night.

Winter skies bring wondrous treasures, with Orion perhaps being the very best. While it is ideally positioned for viewing around midnight during the dead of winter, in late winter and early spring, it's high in the southwest in the evening as twilight ends - and it's not as cold. Time to tough it out and renew our acquaintance with M42, the Great Orion Nebula, in the middle of Orion's sword. It's occasionally visible to the naked eye, obvious in good binoculars and superb in a scope.

It is host to a star nursery, multiple star systems, emission and reflection nebulae and, as the Hubble Space Telescope has discovered, giant disk clouds of gas and dust surrounding stars that may eventually coalesce into planetary systems. At its heart is the Trapezium, four bright, young stars that energize the surrounding gas clouds, giving rise to the nebula we see some 1,600 light years away. Although the visible nebula seems large, perhaps 15 light years across, it is just the core of a cloud that stretches across several hundred light years.

A second, much fainter gas cloud, NGC 2024, surrounds the left-most star in Orion's belt, Alnitak. You'll be able to spot it in a small scope, but it'll take a fairly powerful one to make out any of its details, one of which is the famous "Horsehead Nebula." Don't expect to see that; it's a photographic target. Another faint nebula, M78, lies about 2½ degrees northeast of Alnitak. It's part of the same gas cloud as M42.

The Red Planet has been hanging out in the same neighborhood as Orion. Although Mars is not nearly as bright as it was at the beginning of the year, it is still easy to spot in Taurus, forming a large triangle with the red giant stars Aldebaran and Betelgeuse. Also in the vicinity are the bright stars Capella and Procyon and the twins, Castor and Pollux.

Farther east in the evening, Saturn is the planet of the moment, being closest to Earth this year on Feb. 24. It'll be only 771 million miles away. Since it's at opposition (directly opposite the sun from Earth), it will rise around sunset and set around sunrise. Look for it in Leo, near the bright star Regulus. In late February and early March, Saturn is about the same magnitude as Mars (0.2), but it's a far better telescopic object. Its rings and moons provide a unique show.

Early risers can catch Jupiter, Venus and, perhaps, Mercury in the predawn sky.

In late February, Jupiter will be hanging out in Sagittarius and shining at magnitude minus 2. It rises a little after 4 a.m. Mercury and Venus will rise about an hour later. On Feb. 27, those two will be about a degree apart with Venus far brighter (minus 3.9). They'll be even closer on March 24 but will be a challenge to spot in the sun's glare, since they'll pop over the horizon only a half hour before the sun - typically the coldest time of day.

Lewis McCool writes from his home near Dolores, Colo., where he can take advantage of clear nights and dark skies.