Comet Lulin Update

Comet Lulin zips across the night sky this week, having made its closest approach to the Sun and Earth.  You still have time to get a good view of this strange comet before it slowly dims and the waxing Moon brightens the sky.  Lulin is easily visible in binoculars or telescope, and may be visible with the naked eye as a faint, fuzzy star in very dark skies .  Whether you’re in the city or under dark sky, this comet is easily visible and well worth a look.

The Basics

• This week, Comet Lulin passes under the bright northern constellation Leo.  On February 24, it passed near Saturn, near the lion’s hindquarters.  Tonight and tomorrow, look for it just under Regulus, the “heart of the lion” and the brightest star in Leo.  Regulus is the “point” in the backward-question-mark-shaped group of stars that makes up the head of Leo.  You’ll get a good view this week after 10 p.m. local time.

How to find Comet Lulin (from Sky and Telescope)

• In a telescope, you may see a Lulin with short tail and a greenish, fuzzy head (or coma).  Some say Lulin looks like an apple on a stick.

• On March 5, the comet will pass within 2 degrees of M44, the Beehive cluster in Cancer.  The pair will be a striking sight in binoculars.

Deeper Look

• Comets, as you know, are cold, dark, “dirty snowballs” from the outer solar system, set aglow when they approach the heat and radiation from the Sun.  Made of dust and small molecules like ammonia, methane along, water, and carbon dioxide, comets take on a characteristic greenish color because of the emission of light from ionized oxygen, C2, and CN.

• Lulin has two tails.  The dust tail is pushed away by the radiation pressure of the Sun’s light, while the ion tail is held in place by the magnetic field of the solar wind.  And Lulin also had an unusual “anti-tail”, an artifact of perspective as we see the comet pass through the plane of the Earth’s orbit.  Check out this time-lapse of Lulin’s tails.

• The comet is moving around the Sun in a direction opposite from the Earth and other planets.  It’s in an open, parabolic orbit, which means it’s now speeding out to interstellar space, never to return.

Good To Know

Comet Lulin was discovered by accident, as most comets are, at the Lulin Observatory near Nantou, Taiwan in July 2007 during a photographic sky survey of asteroids.  Astronomer Chi Sheng Lin photographed the comet, and a 19-year-old student, Quanzhi Ye of China recognized the comet on Lin’s images.  Comet Lulin is the brightest comet visible from Earth since the wacky Comet Holmes, which hovered in Perseus for weeks some 15 months ago.

Personal View

I wish I could share a personal view of Comet Lulin, but I’ve been clouded out for the past couple of weeks.  The forecast looks good for the next few days, so I’m hoping to take a peek.  As I’ve said before, astronomy is often an exercise in patience.