In like a lamb? Out like a lion?

It's March again. Did March come in like a lion or a lamb? I don't really know because this is being written well in advance of the event. You know the old saying, if March comes in like a lion, it will go out like a lamb. That old saying may have some astronomical roots.

If you look in the east these evenings at about 8 p.m., you will find the unmistakable backwards question mark indicating the head and mane of Leo, the Lion. The very bright star Regulus, the Little King, marks the point of the question mark.

A smaller right triangle of stars marks his hindquarters as he reposes, looking over his celestial kingdom. Moderately bright Saturn has joined Leo for a while just below the triangle.

I almost hesitate to mention the lamb because it is represented by Aries, the Ram which consists of four second and third magnitude stars in almost a straight line with no resemblance to its namesake at all.

If you really want to find it, look about 22 degrees (a little more than the distance represented by two clenched fists held at arms length) above bright Venus in the western evening skies and about the same distance below the "V" shape of Taurus, the Bull.

If you are really in a toot to find Aries, mark your calendar for the evening of March 26, when a very slender, two-day-old crescent moon will be right in the middle of it.

In any case, my point is this, in the beginning of March Leo is rising in east with all the tempestuous March weather associated with it. Aries, the gentle lamb on the other hand, is setting in the west as March goes out leading into gentle April.

It has been quite an eventful week astronomically speaking. First there was Comet Lulin brighting to naked-eye visibility and sailing past Saturn. The comet appeared as a greenish puff ball with no visible, at least in binoculars, tail. A telescope might have revealed the slight tail the comet was sporting.

For the next few evenings you might be able to spot the comet as it passes through the center of Cancer, the Crab, a constellation located between Gemini, the Twins and Leo. From now until Saturday, binoculars will show the green, fuzzy, blob of the cometary body as it passes the Messier object, M44, a star cluster also called the Bee Hive.

In addition to finding the comet, I think I finally was able, at long last, to view the Zodiacal Light which is caused when sunlight is reflected off of inter-planetary dust grains causing a faint glow along the western horizon similar to the appearance of the Milky Way.

I didn't see the usual cone-shaped glow coming up from the horizon that usually indicates the light. Rather I observed a long-lasting glow of sunset long after the sun sank below the horizon. It lasted well over an hour which is why, when the glow appears in the morning sky in the autumn it is called a "false dawn."

SKY WATCH: First quarter moon tonight, full moon Tuesday. Venus is starting a long slide toward the western horizon these evenings. The extremely bright planet can be viewed until at least an hour after sunset.

Next time: More astronomical blathering.