Calendar

The date (near March 21 in the northern hemisphere) when night and day are nearly the same length and Sun crosses the celestial equator (i.e., declination 0) moving northward. In the southern hemisphere, the vernal equinox corresponds to the center of the Sun crossing the celestial equator moving southward and occurs on the date of the northern autumnal equinox. The vernal equinox marks the first day of the season of spring.

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/astronomy/VernalEquinox.html

*** A great chance to see a fairly dramatic eclipse from the USA ***

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_May_20,_2012

An annular eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are exactly in line, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun. Hence the Sun appears as a very bright ring, or annulus, surrounding the outline of the Moon.

The May 2012 annular phase will be visible from the Chinese coast, the south of Japan, and the western part of the United States and Canada. Guangzhou, Tokyo and Albuquerque will be on the central path.

Its maximum will occur in the North Pacific, south of the Aleutian islands for 5 min and 46.3 s, and finish in the western United States.

It will be the first central eclipse of the 21st century in the continental USA, and also the first annular eclipse there since the solar eclipse of May 10, 1994 which was also the previous eclipse of this series Solar Saros 128.