Comet Lulin

[mike.brightmore]

Has anyone observed comet Lulin yet? If so what's it like?

[burningbarricade]

I've been waiting patiently for the dense cloud that seems to always be over Belfast to lift so I can have a look for it.

It's nice and sunny and clear now, and hopefully it's going to stay that way and if so I'll be out after the footie tonight.

[Robert Claveyrolas]

I think I succeeded to see Lulin through binoculars, without support or mount.

It was a dim spot hardly visible.

I think it was Lulin because the spot moves from February the 22 to February the 24.

I have light pollution, at home (Grenoble suburbs - France), but the seeing was not so bad.

At 11 UTC on February the 22 , it was under Saturn, and two days after, it was South Saturn, above it.

I found yesterday night images of Lulin on :

http://spaceweather.com/

Have a good day.

[Dave]

No Joy for me. Been cloudy for a couple of weeks now...

[Dave]

Hurrah!!! I finally got a small patch of clearish sky....

http://stargazerslounge.com/showthread.php?p=1183663#post1183663

[Swamp Gas ?]

GOT IT !

Quite disappointing really.

There is high misty cloudy filtering out a lot of light.

Stars seem quite bright but Lulin looks to be just a feint patch of triangular cloud.

Very easy to miss.

It took a while for my eyes to adjust to the dark ( 1 hour ! ) before I was able to discern any hint of colour - very slightly green. No nucleus visible just a brightening to one side.

I wont be able to capture it as it would require a very long exposure and as my scope is unmotorised it hardly seems worth it.

I'll stay up another hour to see if viewing conditions improve but I'm not hopeful of any worthwhile images.

BUT - I got to see it and with the way the weather has been recently I did not think that was going to be possible.

[mike.brightmore]

Just got my first look at Comet Lulin - through hazy high cloud though. It is fuzzy, a bit like a mini Comet Holmes. Cannot make out a tail though or any colour. It has moved noticeably against the background stars during the evening. It is now closer to Regulus than to Saturn which surprised me a bit.

[Swamp Gas ?]

It is clouding over now with heavier clouds coming in so I've called it quits for the night.

I was lucky enough to have gone out when I did as was not planing on going out until about now but I took my chance.

I used a 20mm to find it.I kept skirting past it to start with until I realised that the little bit of "cloud" I thought I was seeing was maintaining it's shape.

I switched to a 13mm but finding focus was virtually impossible as there was no true definition to it.

The colour seemed like a muddy Khaki brown to start with but after some time some green did show.Whether that was true colour or my eyes seeing what I wanted to see I was not sure but after a while and for about 10 mins there was definite colour - but a very muddy green colour to what I was expecting.

A slight area of brightness to it to one side but nothing more.

8" reflector with both 20mm and 13mm

My first comet.

[Swamp Gas ?]

I'm sure some here will have managed to capture some shots tonight - look forward to seeing what people got.

[ngc2403]

I had the pleasure of seeing this comet from a dark sky at the weekend and it was about as big as M31 in a 12'' dob

better still was the fact that i found it using my eyes as it was clear to see as long smudge in the sky through the ep it was very nice but there was no trace of the dust which is supposed to be pointing out the front of the comet?

anyone seen or imaged it with dust out the front?

ally

[cashmore]

Managed a few views through the clouds Weds 25th Feb about midnight

Appeared as a round 'fuzzy blob' through binoculars and ED80 - couldn't really see the tail that well without imaging.

Attached is a 10x30sec image binned 2x2 using an MX7C and ED80 Pro

Tim