* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Comet C/2007 N3 (Lulin)

Blobrana · L

Comet Lulin See It On 24 Feb 2009

This clip shows bright green Comet Lulin that is expected to put on an excellent show in our night skies this month. It is easily visible thru binoculars, and sharp-eyed observers may even be able to spot it with unaided eyes, if conditions are favourable. Estimates suggest it will be brightest around 24 February, when it will also appear to pass close to the planet Saturn.FFFF

Blobrana · L

Comet Lulin

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17 minute timelapse of Comet Lulin's movement. Taken with an 8" LX200 Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope and Canon XTi. 45 second and 1 minute exposures were arranged into this animation.

Blobrana · L

Astronomers keeping an eye on a visitor over Auckland
Stargazers at Aucklands Stardome Observatory are watching out for the close approach of a new comet in the skies above New Zealand this month.
Comet Lulin will pass closest to the Earth - coming within 61.3 million kilometres - on 24 February, when it is expected to brighten to become visible to the naked eye or at least easily seen through binoculars.

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Blobrana · L

Astronomy is one of those fields where, on a clear night, anyone can make a major discovery. If you don't believe this, just ask 19-year-old Quanzhi Ye, a student at Sun Yat-sen University in China, who on July 11, 2007, found a new comet on photos taken at the Lulin Observatory.
Comet C/2007 N3, aka comet Lulin, is an icy remnant from the primordial solar system that on Feb. 23 will pass within 38 million miles of Earth.

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Blobrana · L

During the next few weeks, a fine comet bright enough for observation in binoculars and possibly even with the naked eye will provide a fine skywatching target when weather permits.
Comet Lulin will be closest to Earth on Feb. 24 and prime viewing will occur than and on surrounding nights. For sharp-eye viewers with dark, rural, skies, the comet is expected to be visible as a dim, fuzzy star.

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Feb 2009 - Comet Lulin - Plasma tail terminates

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"Retrograde orbit, unbound."
February 4, 2009 - Comet Lulin's tail.
The cometary nucleus makes it's closest earth approach @ 0.41 AU, on Feb 24, 2009. Near sun Jan 8-12, 2009.

Blobrana · L

During the early morning, 6th February, 2009, Comet Lulin will pass close to the magnitude double star Alpha Librae (Zubenelgenubi), in the constellation Libra.

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Blobrana · L

Comet Lulin disconnection event

Today we wanted to make some wide-field imaging of comet C/2007 N3 (LULIN), in search for large scale structural features....We were lucky enough to capture an intriguing phenomena: in our images is clearly visible a nice disconnection event (DE) in the plasma tail of the comet
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Blobrana · L

Comet Lulin, just discovered in 2007 and making what might be its maiden swing through Earth's neighbourhood, should be visible in the sky throughout much of next month, drawing closest to our planet on February 24.
The comet's parabolic orbit seems to indicate an origin beyond the inner solar system - meaning it may be passing through for the first time.

"[The comet] should be a fairly easy object [to see with] modest amateur telescopes or even binoculars" - Donald Yeomans, a comet and asteroid expert at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

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