The weather lately may not suggest spring, but spring abounds in the night sky. We measure spring in the lengthening daylight and the starry nights.

Orion, the hunter, a constellation we associate with winter is now hovering in the western sky. The grand favorite constellation has moved to the back, making room for constellations rising in the east: Bootes, the shepherd, and Virgo, the beautiful lady and the second largest constellation in the night sky.

The Big Dipper, also called Ursa Major, is slipping into a more prominent position. The dipper is now standing on its handle in the northeastern sky and it is overhead by 11 o’clock. The Big Dipper never sets from our sky, but the constellation spent most of the winter above the horizon, so far north in our sky, obscured by the leafless trees in most backyards.

The future looks good for those pursuing more signs of seasonal change. Orion starts to set in the west around 10 o’clock and it is clearly gone by midnight. By that hour, the constellations rising in the east are summer favorites and include Hercules, Cygnus and even Libra.