TUNGSTEN VALLEY — Blessed with dark skies (as long as Eldora doesn’t start night skiing), our Peak to Peak is a terrific venue for night skies. It’s so dark, you can feel lost when you take in the view on a crisp, clear night.

How to make sense out of those thousand pinpoints? We lump them into recognizable groups, the constellations. The International Astronomical Union names 90.

Recognizing them, the sky makes sense and you can find your way to everything else, like planets and nebulae. You can even use your smarts to navigate oceans and deserts. This month, we look at how to learn the constellations.

First, know that except for a handful like Orion, constellations don’t resemble tangible things. Pegasus, for instance, looks nothing like a horse. Constellations are mostly boxes (like Pegasus), trapezoids (like Corvus), triangles (like Triangulum), and curves (like Corona Borealis). Their names are memory aids, not descriptions. It’s easier to call something “Ram” than to say, “those two brighter stars with a third dimmer star at a slight angle.”

Which brings us to sky maps. They’re typically smothered with useless artistic flourishes. Cute as the pictures are, they’re clutter that impedes learning. Forget the art.

And, forget smart-phone apps. Fiddling with them distracts from learning. The screen lighting wrecks your night vision, too. Although a few have red-light options, I haven’t seen one that isn’t full of distractions. Leave your phone or tablet in a drawer.

Grinding down to the metal, you need: A red headlamp, a flat planisphere, a 4-inch diameter black celestial globe you can hold in your hand, and, optionally, a transparent 12-inch celestial sphere for the kitchen table.

The planisphere, for 40 degrees north, is the modern take on a medieval astrolabe. It’s a sky computer for any date and time. The Snapsheres 16-piece magnetic puzzle (available at Etsy for about $65) is the little black sphere. Glue the pieces to make it permanent. The large transparent globe is nice-to-have but not essential. If you do acquire one, as from Geyer Instructional, make sure it has a sun ball so that you can set its date and time.

Begin in a clear, dark night with little or no moon. Set the planisphere’s date and time under the headlamp, then match it with your sky view. Begin with easy constellations like Orion. Then go to less recognizable groups.

Being two-dimensional, the planisphere distorts near its edges. To see things undistorted, turn your headlamp onto the black sphere and orient it to north. You’ll see the true shapes of every constellation. Match them to your sky view.

Start memorizing, not more than half an hour per night. This process takes a year, with the sky shifting about a degree per day. Considering the moon and weather and life’s vicissitudes, you might get 10 good nights each month. But that’s all you’ll need.

Use the big transparent globe to memorize patterns during the day or on cloudy or moonlit nights. Pretty soon, you’ll find yourself visualizing the patterns when you’re sitting around doing nothing. They’ll burn into your brain. That’s you, learning.

After about a year, you’ll glance upward and instantly orient yourself to the constellations above you. It will feel effortless. You’ll know the sky.

Next month: Learning star names.

February Fun Astro-Fact: The Pleiades star cluster is depicted with a bull in a Paleolithic cave painting at Lascaux, France. At 17,000 years old, this is the earliest known representation of a constellation. We still call its star group Taurus, the Bull.

In February Skies:

The sun begins the month in Capricornus, enters the Southern Fish (Piscis Austrinis) on the 9th, and swings into Aquarius on February 22. At mid-month, Nederland days and nights are 10.5 and 13.5 hours long, respectively.

The moon’s dates are: Full (Snow Moon) February 1; Last Quarter February 9; New February 17 (Lunar New Year and the start of Ramadan); First Quarter February 24.

February Meteors: None of note.

Best Sky Viewing Nights (Minimal Moon): February 9-23

Sunset (Mid-Month): Capella is bright-white in the northeast. The Andromeda Galaxy is just west of overhead, with Cassiopeia (a squashed “W”) a bit northward. The Great Square of Pegasus is in the west above Deneb.

Midnight (Mid-Month): Follow the arcing curve of the Big Dipper’s handle to red Arcturus (“Arc to Arcturus”) and then continue onward to bright-white Spica in the southeast. Leo, with burnt-orangish Regulus, is nearly overhead. The Lion’s front looks like a backward-facing question mark. Procyon is bright in the southwest, with Orion and Sirius setting below it. Cassiopeia is low in the northwest.

Sunrise (Mid-Month): Altair is rising while Scorpius’ Antares (looking like the Scorpion’s angry burnt-red eye) is low at due south. Vega is high in the northeast, with Deneb below it and to the left. The great trapezoid of Corvus is low in the southwest. Leo is low in the west while Capella sets in the northwest.

Mercury, in Aquarius, has the best evening viewing of the year on the 19th, low in the WSW just after sunset.

Venus, in Aquarius, is barely visible in the sunset at the end of the month.

Mars, in Capricorn, is lost in the sunrise.

Jupiter, in Gemini, is low in the east at sunset, setting at sunrise. Its retrograde motion goes back to forward on February 11.

Saturn, in Aquarius, pairs with Neptune, low in the western evening twilight.

Notable Space Missions: Astronauts to the moon! NASA’s Artemis II mission, launching February 6 or later, will send four people, including the first person of color and the first woman, on a 10.5-day swing around the moon. This first crewed lunar mission since 1972 sets the stage for a US-crewed lunar landing in the next few years. But China might get there first, while NASA’s moon-lander builder lags years behind schedule.

Frank Sanders, a spectrum scientist, takes astronomy-related inquiries at backyardastronomy1@gmail.com.