Will March be a lion or a lamb?

So, what will it be? Will March come in like a lion or a lamb? With all the warm temperatures we have been having, and with the wind I was beginning to think March had come early.

We have discussed before some of the history behind the lion/lamb mythology. It is not quite as famous as that pesky rodent in Pennsylvania, but still bears a look.

Go outside any evening this week and find a nice dark-sky place with a relatively unobstructed eastern horizon. There look for the large backward question mark indicating the head and mane of our feline friend, Leo, the Lion.

Adding some icing to the cake will be very bright Jupiter just below the triangle of stars marking Leo's hindquarters so that after you have finished playing with the cat, you can slap some glass on the King of Planets.

I could tell you to then turn around and look east between Pegasus and Taurus above Pisces for Aries, the Ram but it would be a waste of time since the constellation consists of only one bright star and is drawn with a straight line it is impossible to locate without using a star atlas.

You will just have to trust me on that one.

So, with the location of Leo on one side of the sky and Aries on the other, putting those two together with the comings and going of March seemed the logical thing to do.

Now, in the words of my good friend, Monty Python, "Now for something completely different."

It is time to "Leap" again, that is to leap over the time that has accumulated during the past four years so that the calendar can catch up with astronomical clock.

We say that the length of an Earth year is 365 days, however, to be specific (and we all know how much I love being specific) an Earth year is 365 days and six hours -- but to be even more specific, it is 365 days, five hours, 49 minutes and 16 seconds. To round that off we call it six hours.

So each year Earth's orbit is six hours ahead of the calendar, so if we multiply six hours by four years and we have 24 hours. So each four years Earth is ahead of the calendar by one day.

That is not so bad, but, if you keep going that way for a few thousand years we are suddenly having spring in December.

So, to fix that the powers that be and some people who are a lot smarter than me came up with the idea of adding a 24-hour period--one day--to the calendar to make up for those extra hours, thus the idea of "Leap Day" was born.

Since February was already a short month--an idea created by a whole different bunch of smart people--they put it there.

Thus "Leap Day" was born and we have been jumping ever since. Now, there are a bunch of rules about when Leap Day can be added and when it can't, but I am not going to be that specific.

That is a little too specific--even for me.

SKY WATCH:Third-quarter moon on March 1. Monday, Feb 29, a waning moon will meet Mars in the early morning hours. Best viewing will start after 2 a.m. MST. By Wednesday, March 2, the moon has moved on to meet up with ringed Saturn. The two will be a little more than two degrees apart so both will fit inside your binocular field of view. Best viewing will be after 3 a.m. MST. After you finish with the binoculars, go to the telescope. Saturn is always a fine view.

NEXT WEEK: More astronomical blathering.