Spring is nearly ready to ... spring

It is now time for the quoting of my favorite poem of spring ... "Spring has sprung, the grass is rizz, I wonder where the flowers is."

Well, so much for my skills at poetry. Needless to say, you are well aware that the spring season starts officially at 11:49 am MDT on Thursday, March 20. That is the moment the sun crosses the celestial equator from the southern into the northern hemisphere bringing spring to us and autumn to the folks down south.

The celestial equator is an extension of the earthly equator out into space. It is tilted at an angle of 23.5 degrees from perpendicular which is the reason for the changes of season on the Earth.

This axial tilt at times points our northern hemisphere away from the sun (winter) and at other times toward the sun (summer).

This moment when the sun crosses the equator is called an equinox which means the length of day and night are supposed to be equal. If we were living on the equator that would be true.

However, we here in this part of the world are living on or about the 40th parallel which, in English, is 40 degrees north of the equator and our time of equal days and nights occurs well before the 20th.

This is the earliest crossing of the equator for spring since 1896.

How about a nice binocular challenge? On either side of the March 14 pairing of the moon and Mars (March 13 or March 15) take a pair of binoculars outside about an hour after sunset and find Mars which will be almost directly overhead. Just to the lower right of Mars, and in the same binocular field of view, see if you can find the open star cluster M35. Mars and the cluster can be found near the feet of the constellation Gemini. If you find the pair, slowly swing your binoculars up and try to find star clusters M36, M37, and M38. They are found in the constellation Auriga, the Charioteer, and below the constellation's brightest star, Capella.

Don't worry if that either of those nights are cloudy, Mars will be in the area of M35 for a week or more.

SKY WATCH:

Wednesday night, March 12, look for a very slender crescent moon near the Pleiades star cluster in the early evening. The pair will be between Taurus, the Bull on the left, and Perseus on the right. Look for another close conjunction of a first quarter moon and Mars on Friday. Look high overhead above Orion the Hunter and near the feet of Gemini the Twins, the pair will be a little more than one degree (the width of two full moons) apart. Not as close as the December pairing but close enough for a good binocular view. In the morning hours of March 14 between one-half and one hour before sunrise look in the east close to the horizon for a Venus/Mercury pairing, bright Venus will be to the lower left of the two and binoculars would help in finding the tiny planet. Jupiter is up and right of the planetary pair.

The moon is playing tag with Saturn and Regulus in Leo the Lion again. Look in the early evening of Tuesday, March 18 in the east as an almost full moon visits the pair.

NEXT TIME:

More astronomical blathering.