The vernal equinox -- wait, we missed it!

After three months of waiting spring arrives Thursday. The vernal equinox, when the sun crosses the celestial equator traveling north, will occur at 11:48 am MDT on Thursday, March 20 to be precise. If you lived on the equator the length of day and night would be equal, hence the term equinox.

But, since we here in Southwest Nebraska and Northwest Kansas do not live on the equator, the time of equal day and night occurred on March 17. At the autumnal equinox on Sept. 22, the time of equal day and night will occur on Sept. 26.

The spring stars are becoming more prominent in the eastern sky after dark-thirty. Leo the Lion is very prominent featuring bright Saturn very near its brightest star Regulus (Regulus is the dot on the backwards question mark indicating Leo's head and mane). Virgo, the Maiden is now rising at about 10:30 p.m. with its bright star Spica.

You can find Spica by finding the Big Dipper and following the arc of the handle to Arcturus, the brightest star in Bootes, the Herdsman then "speeding on to Spica." Bootes is shaped like a kite extending left (as you are looking at it) from Arcturus.

Below Leo and to the left of Virgo and above Bootes look for the nondescript constellation of Coma Berenices or "Berenices Hair." The history of Coma Berenices is attributed to Queen Berenice, the wife of Ptolemy III of Egypt. The queen promised to cut off her luxurious hair if her husband came back safe from battle.

When he did, she did and placed the hair in the temple of Aphrodite. When the hair was discovered missing the next morning the king was about to do away with the priests of the temple when they convinced him the hair had been placed in the heavens by the gods. Quick thinking on their part.

The constellation is just three stars shaped like a corner, a star with two lines extending from it. The constellation itself is not much to look at, but if you take a pair of binoculars and scan the area you will find a marvelous star cluster, the Coma Cluster. The cluster is also home to many other star clusters and numerous galaxies.

At 250 light years, the cluster is one of the closest of all the star clusters. According to Robert Burnham in his classic work, "Burnham's Celestial Handbook," only the Ursa Major Group and the Hyades star cluster in Taurus, the Bull are closer.

SKY WATCH: Mars is still a beautiful evening object shining high overhead in the early evening. The Mars, Betelgeuse in Orion, and Aldebaran in Taurus, the Bull triangle is still visible and worth examining with binoculars. I was out looking last week and all three are showing a very similar shade of red. Saturn is still making a nice showing in the east in the early evening for telescopic viewers. It is traveling with Regulus the brightest star in Leo, the Lion. The stars of summer are popping over the eastern horizon in the early morning. You can view Scorpius, the scorpion and Sagittarius, the Centaur after 4:30 a.m. Jupiter is still making an early morning appearance after 4 a.m.

Next time: More astronomical blathering.