Message #7996

[Roman White]

I searched for this comet yesterday (Apr.01, 21:45-22:10 EEST) at Poltava gravimetric observatory with 20cm refractor.
The Moon was also in Gemini, only 9^o away from the comet, anyway I tried


- in 15x45 binoculars and 8x80 guide: not visible

- in 200/3000mm refractor: at magnification ~55x not visible, however the stellar ML was 11.9m. I was unable to correctly defocus stars, but the comet was definetly below 8.5mag.

C/2007N3 (Lulin):
2009 Apr.01.80 UT: m1=[9.0:, 20cm f/15 refractor
[altitude 33*; moonlight interference; city light pollution]