On a September night a group of parents and children sat on a grassy knoll in Champlin, Minnesota, alternating between wide-eyed wonder and bursts of laughter as they listened to veteran meteorologist Mike Lynch give a truly unique interpretation of the Big Dipper's mythological origins.

By day Lynch works in Minneapolis, Minnesota for WCCO Radio, a 50,000-watt clear channel station that can be heard across most of the U.S. His weather reports are peppered with astronomical tidbits and night sky highlights such as planetary conjunctions and International Space Station sighting opportunities. But by night Lynch, 45, travels across Minnesota and western Wisconsin teaching amateur astronomy and stargazing classes.

Greek mythology can be R-rated at times, so tonight, with one-third of the class under the age of 12, Lynch tells the "sanitized" version of the Ursa Major story which has Zeus and Callisto going to Camp Snoopy, the amusement park at the Twin Cities' Mall of America, and Hera, Zeus' girlfriend (actually his wife) discovering the two together on the "Screaming Yellow Eagle" ride, and becoming so jealous and angry that she turns Callisto into a bear, who eventually gets tossed up into the heavens to become Ursa Major (the Big Bear). The kids in the class were clearly captivated; after the class several parents commented that Lynch did a wonderful job of keeping the attention of both children and adults for over two hours.

All of this is just part of Mike Lynch's simple motto: Make the stars your old friends.

Lynch began teaching his astronomy classes 28 years ago while still in high school. Initially his "classes" consisted of setting up his homemade telescopes and having public viewing times and answer sessions at Wood Lake Nature Center in Richfield, MN. As attendance grew, the nature center asked him to create a more structured class. With his characteristic enthusiasm, Lynch developed an eight-session curriculum, which he eventually condensed to a single two-hour session after finding that it was too difficult for most people to commit to all eight classes. His class does come with the "Mike Lynch Cloud Check" guarantee - if its cloudy the night you attend his class, you can come back to any other class for free.

The highlight of the class is viewing the heavens through a telescope. Lynch currently uses a 10-inch reflecting telescope made by Starmaster Telescopes of Arcadia, Kansas, and has a 14-inch reflector on order from the same company. Lynch swears by the quality grind of Starmaster's mirrors. "I've built three telescopes and refurbished one," he says, "but right now I can't build them any better or any cheaper because of the good quality telescopes out there, and the prices are really reasonable." He also still uses a 10-inch reflector that he built a decade ago.

Unfortunately, it was cloudy the night I attended Mike's class. To show the telescope's power, Lynch sighted in the lit McDonald's sign about a half a mile down the street. Several people -- obviously impressed with the telescope's capability -- noted they could see the dirt and cracks in the golden arches.

Lynch's own career path was not without its twist and turns. Lynch entered the University of Minnesota as an astronomy major. But he soon realized he would have to get a Ph.D. to have a future in astronomy, so he switched to meteorology at the University of Wisconsin. He had no media aspirations until he took a class that included creating audiotapes of weather forecasts. Everyone in the class agreed that Lynch had a great voice, and after graduating in 1979 he landed a job as a nightshift broadcast meteorologist at a Twin Cities radio station. Two years later a friend told him that WCCO Radio was looking to add to their meteorology staff; Lynch applied and was hired.

Lynch's voice has become a familiar part of the station's 77-year history and his humor and his self-effacing banter makes him the obvious fall guy with the various well-known broadcasters he has worked with. The highlight of Lynch's meteorology career came on February 2, 1996 when he correctly forecasted a record low 60 degrees below zero for Tower, MN, and did a live broadcast from the town. Lynch has remained a listener favorite and advertisers vie for him to pitch their products. However, Lynch cringes at the word "celebrity," humbly stating, "I'm just a guy who talks on the radio."

Mike excitedly recounts a few of the highlights of the thousands of classes he has taught since 1973 including viewing the solar eclipse in 1979, having 150 people show up at 5:00 a.m. to see Halley's Comet in 1984; having 200 people arrive at a nature center at midnight to see a meteor shower (this has happened several times,) watching the Shoemaker-Levy comet hit Jupiter in 1995 and seeing Hale-Bopp in 1997.

Over the years, Lynch's astronomy classes have become staples for community education departments and nature centers around the region. "We feel very lucky that Mike Lynch comes and teaches his classes for us two times a year. We always hear positive comments about his classes and people are always excited to attend," said Dan Maslowski of the Champlin recreation department. Class size is limited to 50 people per night, and Maslowski says they usually sell out. When Lynch travels to out-state towns such as Grand Rapids in northern Minnesota, its not unusual for over 100 people to show up for the class. Fees for Lynch's class vary depending on the site, but usually range from $15-25.

Lynch's own website, www.lynchandthestars.com, is updated monthly with star charts, conjunction maps, and a constellation-of-the-month. His daughter Angela does the original artwork for the constellation illustrations (which include Elvis as Cephus the King) and his class materials. Lynch also publishes a "Sky Watch" column for the St. Paul Pioneer Press that includes stargazing tips and his class schedule. He thoroughly enjoys writing the weekly column and hints that he would like to do more writing in the future.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Lynch is that he runs marathons. To be blunt, Lynch does not have a runner's physique. "When I turned 40 I had sort of a mid-life crisis," he admits, and in typical Lynch full-tilt fashion, started running long distances. With six marathons under his belt, he'll be running in the Dublin (Ireland) Marathon the end of October, raising money for the Arthritis Foundation.

Lynch foresees conducting his classes until he's an old man, as he clearly enjoys teaching and interacting with people. "When someone says, 'You make astronomy seem so easy,' its music to my ears," he smiles. With his sense of humor and easy-going personality, its obvious there's nothing complicated about Lynch or his wish to share his love of astronomy with others.

"I just want people to look up," Lynch says, "because there's a lot to see up there."