There's no way to sugar coat it: We're definitely in the star-watching doldrums between the big show in the winter sky and the full delights of the summer sky.

Coma Berenices is one of those not-so-spectacular spring constellations. It's small and dim, but it's easy to find, and it has a great story.

Coma Berenices also is one of the newer constellations, listed in 1602 as a constellation to honor Tycho Brahe, the famous and somewhat infamous astronomer who died just one year earlier.

Tycho was the son of wealthy Danish nobility and became fascinated with astronomy when he witnessed a partial solar eclipse when he was 14 years old. He marveled at how accurate the predictions were for the time and the extent of the eclipse.

He then used mom and dad's money to set up a great astronomical observatory on a Danish island so he could make and perfect even more observations.

When his money ran out, and the king would not subsidize his operation, he moved to Prague at the invitation of the monarchy. He recorded years and years of observations — without a telescope — that went on to help many future astronomers.

Tycho was not your run of the mill ivory tower type. He was an egomaniac fat guy who ate, drank and partied hardy. He also was arrogant and combative. At the age of 20, he got into a barroom sword fight and got his nose cut off. Since he had the bucks, he replaced his birth nose with an artificial one made of solid gold.

Tycho and his gold nose met his demise at age of 55 when he died of a bladder infection after boozing it up again at yet another party. He worked hard and played hard — a little too hard!

I guess I got a little sidetracked here, but I just love telling the story of Tycho Brahe.

Anyway, his constellation, Coma Berenices, looks like faint strands of hair flowing in the western sky just after evening twilight. Get your rest, though, because now that it's officially summer, stargazing is really, a late, late show.

Look for the celestial locks about halfway between the western horizon and the overhead zenith.

As you can see in the diagram, it's below the bright stars that make up the handle of the Big Dipper and the also lazy left leaning backward question mark that makes up the constellation Leo the lion closing in on the western horizon.

Honestly though, Coma Berenices is a faint constellation, and you'll have to be stargazing in the dark countryside to really see it. I think you'll like what you see. It definitely has that ghostly look to it.

According to mythology, Coma Berenices is named after Queen Berenices, the wife of the famous Egyptian Pharaoh, Ptolemy III.

The story goes that the great Pharaoh was leading his troops into a fierce war. Every night Queen Berenices prayed to the gods for his safe return and was so desperate to see him again that she promised to cut off all her beautiful hair if her husband returned safe and sound.

About a year later, Ptolemy returned victorious, and true to her word, the queen cut off all her hair and dedicated it to the temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of love.

Just days later, some souvenir-seeking scoundrels hoisted Berenices' hair out of the temple. When the hair heist was discovered, Ptolemy and Bernices were ready to roll some heads, literally!

All of the temple priests were within hours of execution when a traveling group of Greek consulting astronomers literally saved their necks. They convinced Ptolemy and Bernices to go out with them that night to see a brand new pale cluster of light high in the sky.

"Look!" they exclaimed, "do you not see the clustered curls of the queen's hair?"

They continued, "Aphrodite and the other gods believed that the queen's hair was just too beautiful for a single temple to possess. Berenices' hair belongs in the heavens for all to see!"

Much to the relief of the temple priests, Berenices and Ptolemy swallowed this line of bull. Consultants can be very convincing, even today!

While you're admiring the queen's severed hairdo, check out the close conjunction going on in Leo the Lion.

As you can see in the diagram, Mars, Saturn and Regulus are getting really cozy with each other. Between now and early July, Saturn and Mars will really get into a celestial hug.

In fact, from July 9 to 11, they'll be less than a degree apart. What a show it'll be just above the western horizon!

It's the best planet-to-planet conjunction in 2008, and I'll have more on it in the next couple of Starwatch columns.

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and is author of the book, "Pennsylvania Starwatch," available at bookstores and at his Web site www.lynchandthestars.com.