Comet Lulin.

[Jeff RV]

May be a nice target in february.

http://spaceweather.com/

Jeff.

[Dave]

Yes, It will pass through Virgo, Leo, Cancer and Gemini.

See this page for details: http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2007N3/2007N3.html

It should reach around 4th magnitude. But hey, it's a comet.

Looks like its a newcomer to the inner solar system, so it could flare up really brightly. Let's keep fingers crossed.

The anti-tail looks interesting.

See http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=09&month=01&year=2009

Dave

[scotastro]

A date for the diary. Comet Lulin will pass 2 deg from Saturn on 24th Feb.

Mike

[Dave]

Here's a bit more detail for those preparing to observe or image it over the next few months.

Comet Lulin was discovered last July when it was around 19th magnitude by Taiwan and Chinese astronomers. However as it moves northwards over the next couple of months it should reach at least naked eye visibility. Calculations suggest that this is the first time this comet has approached the Sun. This may mean that we could be in for a good show as the radiation from the Sun sublimates volatile materials from the comets nucleus that has never before experienced this amount of warming.

At the time of writing (11th January) the comet is low in the south amongst the stars of Libra.

Images show that it has two tails, the normal tail pointing away from the Sun and an anti-tail, pointing in the opposite direction.

As it moves north and approaches the Earth the comet should get bigger and brighter and be easily on display for us to view.

Here is a run down of what we should expect to see and the areas of sky it passes through during this apparition, to help you find it in the sky.

By the middle of February, the comet is in the southern part of Virgo, passing south of Spica on the 19th when it will be at perihelion only 1.24 Astronomical Units from the Sun.

On the 18th and 19th of March it passes through a rich field of the Virgo galaxy cluster, making for good imaging opportunities.

If you have been able to observe it regularly up to this point, you should now have noticed that the motion of the comet has noticeably increased as the distance between the comet and the Earth decreases.

As it progresses northwards it moves into the constellation of Leo on the 23rd.

On the 24th of February it passes just over 2 degrees from Saturn at 03h when the comet will be at its closest to the Earth at around 0.4 Astronomical Units. This is when the comet SHOULD be at its brightest.

On the 28th of February the comet will be within a degree of Regulus.

On the 2nd of March the comet moves into Cancer and passes within half a degree of Sigma Cancri on the 5th. In the early hours of the 6th of March, the comet passes just south of M44, The Praesepe Star Cluster.

The comet moves into Gemini in the early hours of the 10th of March.

By this time the motion and brightness of the comet should have decreased markedly, making it quite a challenging object.

However, don’t give up on it yet, as the comet may have undergone an outburst from the shock of its close encounter with the Sun and could be much brighter than expected and we have a couple more close encounters to observe yet..

On the 15th of March, it passes within a quarter of a degree of NGC2392 (The Eskimo Nebula) at around 04h. On the 17th of March it lies just south of Sigma Geminorum.

As with most comets nothing is guaranteed and every comet is different. So let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope that Comet Lulin gives us another comet show we can remember and talk about until the next bright comet makes a graceful appearance in our skies.

[Sam]

Thanks for the info Jeff and thanks for the additional info Eagleseye. I hope it's as good a show as Holmes was last year.

[Talitha]

Definitely one to watch.

[Jeff RV]

Don't forget to look out for the Now described as the "Green Comet" by NASA, here's a link to a great backyard pic on their web.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/04feb_greencomet.htm?list948445

Jeff.

[Jeff RV]

Just noticed "SpaceWeather.com" http://www.spaceweather.com/ is reporting the comet to have a disconnected tail this morning, peculiarly similar to comet Encke. http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/01oct_encke.htm

This could be a nice one.

Jeff.

[scotastro]

First view of Lulin this morning. The sky was clear but between the Moon and approaching dawn it was not very dark. The view through the 10" f6 dob showed a large fuzzy ball about the size of M13 with a faint star like core.

Lulin has arrived at a bad time as it and the Moon are approaching each other. They will not be separated enough until 16th Feb. The comet will be much brighter by then.

This is the 30th comet I have observed.

Mike

[Andrew*]

I like that piece on the NASA website.

Some excellent photo opportunities comign up 8)

Andrew

[Dave]

I had set my sights on seeing the comet this morning.

Got up, was too murky, only the brighter stars showing through, last ditch effort tomorrow morning before the Moon is too high in the sky at that time and back to work (weather permitting...).

[Barry W]

Thanks all,I've been receiving some other information on this as well. It looks like the viewing times are between 0300 and twilight over here in western Canada. Looking forward to some good views.

Cheers,

Barry

[Dave]

According to Spaceweather.com Lulin is now bright enough to be seen with the naked eye.

Still cloudy here...

[lulu57]

Hmmmm....Lulin would be a good name for a comet, if it was just tweaked a bit....

[Jeff RV]

More on Lulin, The interesting thing about this one, according this article from SpaceWeather.com, is "Backyard telescopes reveal a full-fledged comet, vived green, That moves as you watch it",

assuming no cloud cover that is.

http://spaceweather.com/

Jeff

[Jeff RV]

If your sky is cloudy, the "Coca-Cola Space Science Center" are going to transmit a webcast through a 16" sct on Feb 23rd, just scroll down and click the "Tune in" link.

http://spaceweather.com/

Good luck & Clear skies.

Jeff.