If the weather will cooperate, we’ve got the best stargazing ahead before winter steps in. The moon is not interfering, having shifted to the early morning hour. The Milky Way is readily viewable high and bright. With sunsets now as early as 4:11 p.m., the dark of night prevails for more hours in the day than daylight.

The skies are dark at the dinner hour. Step outside and the canopy of stars overhead is easily viewable.

If you are outside at 8 p.m., the shifting of the seasonal constellations is dramatically different from months ago. The bright constellation Orion is rising in the eastern sky. The stars of summer, like Deneb, Altair and the brightest of them all Vega are setting in the west.

The Milky Way extends from east to west and is not far from being overhead. The galaxy’s prominent stars include many of the autumn constellations. The familiar “w” shaped constellation Cassiopeia is just north of being almost overhead. The Milky Way looks like a cloud crossing Cassiopeia, but it is not a meteorological cloud. Weather clouds come and go. But at night the Milky Way’s movement is almost stationary.