Changing seasons bring changing skies

As the seasons change, so do the constellations in the sky. The "Old Guard" of winter -- Orion, Taurus, Canis Major, and Auriga, are giving way to the constellations of spring.

Above the eastern horizon in the early evening Leo, Virgo, Bootes, and Cancer are making their annual appearance.

Looking southeast and almost directly overhead is the five stars of Cancer, the Crab. I don't know what the astronomers of old thought a crab looked like, but Cancer isn't one of them.

If anything, Cancer looks like the hood ornament for a Mercedes-Benz, or the peace symbol from the 1960s. Its main claim to fame is the very nice binocular star cluster, M44, the Beehive cluster -- which we will be looking at next week.

Next, down and to the left, is the backward question mark indicating the head and mane of Leo, the Lion which does look like what it is supposed to.

Further down and slightly further left is the very large, spread out constellation, Virgo, the Maiden. The very bright first magnitude star Spica which by an hour after local sunset is only eight degrees above the horizon.

About 30 degrees above the eastern horizon (about the width of your clenched fist held at arms length times three) is a small, three-star constellation called Coma Berenices, Berenices's Hair.

This is the only constellation which is associated with a real, non-mythological person. She was the wife of Ptolemy III, the King of Egypt and lived in the third century B.C.

According to legend, she promised the gods that if her husband came home from war alive, she would cut off her beautiful hair. Well, he did and so did she. The locks of hair were placed in the temple of Venus but somehow came up missing.

The king was angry and about to do in the priests of the temple when one of them said that the hair had been placed in the sky by the gods and pointed out the three stars that he said was the hair.

There is a very nice binocular star cluster on the upper, right end of the constellation which gives it a fuzzy look, which could look like locks of hair.

Coma Berenices can be found to the lower left of the back end of Leo, above and right of the kite-shaped Bootes, and to the left of Virgo. It consists of just three stars that look like two lines joined to make a corner.

So why all the fuss about three little stars? Well, between Coma Berenices and Virgo, and the back end of Leo is a wonderful area called the "Realm of the Galaxies."

In this area there are hundreds of galaxies, alas, none of them are visible to just the eyes alone, and very, very, few of them are visible with binoculars and some are visible in telescopes.

But to really see this area in all its glory you need to look at photographs. Use your favorite web browser and go to You Tube and search for "Realm of the Galaxies." The first one on the list is a piece from Carl Sagan's Cosmos with a great treatment of this area.

SKY WATCH: New moon tonight, you will remember, new moon means no moon. Saturday, April 13, a slender, three-day old moon will be between the Hyades and Pleiades star clusters right near Aldebaran in Taurus. It will be a good time to look for earthshine. On April 14, the moon has moved on to be near bright Jupiter. This will be the last opportunity until August for a good view of a moon/Jupiter conjunction.

There will be another conjunction in May, but it will be very low on the horizon and not very good for viewing. By the evening of April 16, the moon is residing in the area of the feet of Gemini,

NEXT WEEK: Gemini, and more astronomical blather.