Comet C/2007 N3 (Lulin)

[jgs001]

Thanks guys. I did an animation of the 7 images in the stack, more subs would have made this better, but then the file size would have been ridiculous 

[martinastro]

Andy, I'm glad you saw it! 

John, impressive animation of Lulin, beautiful actually!

Tyler, yip that's our most successful thread to date after the Venus-Moon occultation in Dec. Plenty more big threads come 

Quick image of the comet last night. ISO1600, 30 sec's during a gap in the unforgiving clouds. Sky was actually excellent in those gaps. Could see Luln with naked eye to the E of Regulus as a green speck. It looked smaller and fainter to me (mag +5.2) but the condensation was easy at centre. Never got a chance to see it with optical aid though.

[Paul]

John, those are terrific shots, I'd be well chuffed with those! Innovative approach to pointing the camera too

[jgs001]

Thanks Paul, I got fed up of kneeling on the grass craning my neck to see through the viewfinder, and not finding anything  So much easier using a diagonal and a nice wide FOV ep....

[Roman White]

Superb images and animation, John! I'm glad you had sucess with it. 
What a noticeable movement during 2,5min!

Martin, I can see Ceres in your last image. Maybe it is better visible in hi-res.

BTW, what is that dark line coming across the upper left part of the image? 

I had no opportunity to see the comet since Feb.24. No clear nights are expected on next week, but I know that the weather will significantly improve as the spring comes! 

[martinastro]

Roman, thanks very much for pointing out Ceres on my image. Now I can say I have both an asteroid and comet in one shot  .

The black line is a power cable joining two poles in the country. I didn't have time to get away from them before the clouds rolled in.

[Tyler]

John that animation is incredible! very good job there...spaceweather?

Its one of the cleanest animations I have seen.

Martin, its pretty cool to see it move so quickly, I havent seen it for a few nights, so thanks for posting those images 

Clear skies for everyone tonight, Ill be snowy skies.

[jgs001]

thanks Tyler, I'll look at aligning the frames a bit better, and then see about submitting it.

[Big Dipper]

Very nice widefield shot Martin. That sky, indeed looks pretty dark.

John, as commented elsewhere, I think that's a superb animation (I have never done one in my life so may well end up asking you for advice one day).    Regarding the viewfinder, I have one of those Right Angle focus magnifiers for use with objects near to the zenith. However, unless the target, or a nearby bright star, are visible in the camera viewfinder, then you won't see them in the magnifier either!

I also have a flash bracket with a couple of Jessops universal quick release adapters which I use with my tripod & AstroTrac. The adapters are aligned so that I can attach my camera & also a 6x30 finderscope, side by side. The finderscope obviously finds far more than looking through a DSLR viewfinder & once I have the target in the finderscope, I know it will be visible in the camera as well (the weight of the lens being used does alter where the target appears in the finderscope - i.e. it could be above or below the intersection of the crosshairs - I know what to expect with each lens in my gear). You can then make final framing adjustments in the camera with a couple of test shots. BTW my finderscope is both an erect model & a Right Angle one - so it's dead easy to use in all respects! 

Not a happy bunny this evening. Yesterday the forecast was quite promising for Oxford for tonight's close conjunction between Lulin & Regulus. This has now been revised downwards and looking at the sky outside, it looks as though the clouds have read it! 

I shall do as I did last night & keep watch til the early hours......................

[Tyler]

Won't be doing much comet chasin tonight, probably be chasing snowflakes  looks like a decent amount will fall. I got some Ideas for photography at night 

[Tyler]

Wow! you guys see this image of Lulin in Leo on spaceweather? its soo beautiful,  85mm shot

[martinastro]

That's a beauty Tyler, thanks for sharing it.

[martinastro]

John9929 - our observation of the other structure beside the anti-tail we recently seen has just been confirmed..

http://www.spaceweather.com/comets/lulin/26feb09/Michael-Horn1.jpg

  - we were not imagning things after all.

[John9929]

Thanks for that update Martin, I was thinking I needed my specks changing! That's a lovely image there Tyler saw it earlier, what a pity it's cloudy here tonight......again!

[jjb]

got this image of lulin tonight my first attempt at it.


jonathan.