Astronomy, Photography and Weather

Yes, it will peak at +6.0mag on Feb.20-25, looks like a good one.
Here is its trajectory, Nov 2008 to May 2009:
(http://s54.radikal.ru/i144/0808/3b/177c9c535759.jpg)
Straight along the ecliptic, but it will be very fast moving during Feb-Mar 2009.

I'll try to analyze each month.
November 2008. Reaches +10.0mag on Nov.22. Moving very slow across Scorpius. Not visible.

December 2008. 9.7mag to 8.7mag. Moving very slow across Scorpius. Visible 10 min. in naut.dawn in the beginning of month and 1 hour before astr.dawn in the end of month.

January 2009. 8.7mag to 7.4mag. Moving across Libra. Visibility period increases up to 4 hours (morning) by the end of month.

February 2009. 6-7 mag. Moving very fast across Lib-Vir-Leo. In mid-month visible for almost 7 hours (23-5). In the end of month visible all night (almost 12 hours).

March 2009. 6.3mag to 9.5mag. Moving very fast across Leo-Cnc-Gem (passing close to M44 by the way). Visibility period reduces to 7 hours (19-2) by the end of month.

April 2009. Fades below 10.0mag on Apr.07. Moving very slow across Gemini. Visible over 6 hours after dusk.

P.S. This was calculated for Poltava (50N), make -5 degrees to altitude mentally.

Thanks for that great chart and information Roman!. Let's keep adding any further data we get in the future to this thread. Thought I would copy you and Brian's comments on to this thread to keep everything tidy...

Check out the ephemeris...

http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Comets/2007N3.html

On Feb 23rd the comet is a minimum mag of +6.0 and 159.7 degrees elongation from the Sun!, we can't get any better than that. This comet is going to be perfectly placed for observation and photography. The Moon is gone to  :)

Where's it gone to? Getting worried now.... ;D

OK, you mean it's nicely positioned (out of the night sky) when the comet is at its best.

Yes, that's what I mean  :).

The Moon is at a non-threatening phase so we will have plenty of dark skies to enjoy this comet. It's up to the comet now to put on a show....

http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~jds/07n3.ukl

The updated BAA ephemeris is very optimistic giving a maximum magnitude of +4.0 in late feb. I hope they are correct  :)

Two wide field finder charts from Seiichi Yoshida

(http://i36.tinypic.com/20gxz46.gif)

(http://i33.tinypic.com/33bz3iw.gif)

If they are correct, it will be very good for us, 4mag comet is better than 6mag. But why there is so much difference between MPC and BAA predictions?

I don't know ... but the predictions come from a formula which is basically

M = M0 + 5 log D + k log r

where M0 is the "absolute magnitude" (taken as the comet being 1AU from both Sun and Earth), D is the distance from the Earth and r is the distance from the Sun. k=5 for asteroids, around 10 for short period comets which have been around for a while and around 15 for "fresh" comets which have only newly been perturbed into orbits which bring them into the inner solar system.

Clearly the predicted magnitude depends on the value of k used.

I don't know either Roman. Some sources go about these calculations in different ways as Brian said. I just hope the BAA are more accurate for our benefit  :). 4th mag is a very respectable brightness, do you remember seeing Ikeya-Zhang a few years ago?. I thought that was a beautiful naked eye comet, in fact, the best I have seen since Hale Bopp because of it's long naked eye tail. I would be delighted if Lulin comes anywhere close to that.

According to the BAA, 2007 N3 (Lulin) will pass through the SOHO C3 field between November 17 and December 4. It should be around 7th magnitude and may be visible. We may catch it visually in the morning sky after this in late Dec. This is one to watch.  :)

Oh yeah, all my hopes are to this comet... _{(still no success with C/2008A1)}
I plan to start observing in mid-December or so, and to get ready for it until that date...
BTW, I recently noticed that N3 Lulin will pass 2^o away from Saturn on Feb.24  :)

guys this would be visible from my location too, correct?

It should be Tyler. It may even be visible earlier for you as your location is further south in Dec. Role on feb!!. By that time it will be well placed for many.  :)

This comet has just been observed visually by J. J. Gonzalez from Spain..

C/2007 N3 (Lulin):
2008 Dec. 21.27 UT: m1=7.6, Dia.=2.5', DC=5, 25x100B.
[ Mountain location, very clear sky. Beginning of astronomical twilight;
some moonlight interference. Altitude: 7 deg.].

Well, I have nothing to say.  :( It is already visible in nautical twillight to me but the forecast for the next week is cloudy & snow.

Here's another wide chart of Lulin's position between Jan and March.

(http://i41.tinypic.com/2j5m2ad.jpg)

I have been corresponding with Alan Hale and he informs me that he had recently observed Lulin and said it was looking good. He also mentioned that he had high hopes for its performance in feb.

From cometsml...

The next magnitude estimates for a comet C/2007 N3 (Lulin) have appeared. Lulin seems to be a young and active comet. Recent brightness estimates are much lower than predicted. We think, this phenomenon is transient (comet is still too close to the Sun). According to recent magnitude estimates, comet C/2007 N3 should reach 3th-4th mag in February. We think, a visual tail should occur. My light curve here:

http://www.astronomy.ru/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=30916.0;attach=160937;image

Regards,
Artyom Novichonok
Dmitry Chestnov

It must be a nice show in Feb  :)  ::)

Right now I have a personal dilemma with the comet. On the first week of January there are high chances of good weather, but with minimal temperatures -15...-25C. And I'm a bit sick by the way. Going outside early morning in severe frosts is only at my own risk...  :(

I have been setting my alarm for 06.00 every morning for some time now to be greeted by cloud so I haven't even got a chance to even try for the comet. However, a new year and new luck...let's catch this comet!  ;)

looking forward to feb Martin by the sound of things it should put on a good show it has been some time since a nice comet.


jonathan.

Wow im getting excited about this comet! Im going to try and spot it tommorow morning, or the following morning (right now we have clouds) I havent busted out the scope for a while. I hope this will rival Comet 17p/Holmes last October, this time I have my new camera. And now I have a good reason to build a barndoor tracker - anyone have any good links to build one of these?

I was just thinking back to holmes (the first comet I ever saw) and When I went to a super dark sky location, and it was the most magnificent thing I have ever seen, a huge glowing haze - wow do I wish I had my good camera back then! what an expirence, definately was the spark for my interest.

I was outside this morning observing meteors and waiting for comet Lulin which rise enough high at 5:45. But after 5:15 the whole sky got covered with cirrostratus, and areas below 15^o altitude were excessively hazy even before that. I didn't see Scorpion and barely saw bright stars in Libra. So assumed that there are no chances to see comets and went home earlier  :(

I'm going to try for it tonight if this clear sky will hold out that long. I'm looking forward to Lulin too Tyler, I doubt it will match the beauty of Holmes but you never know. I'm hearing contradictory reports about it's peak brightness. Today, based on it's current brightness the peak will be at mag +5. Others are going for +4.5 and the more optimistic group between +3.5 and +4.0. Wouldn't it be great if it had a large outburst!

Do you recall comet Machholz near M45 in 2004? that was a very nice comet with a similar peak mag to what Lulin might reach. If it even came close to the apperance of that comet we would be in for a nice treat. I will never forget seeing the two tails of Machholz with the naked eye even with the Moon in the sky. Vivid blue gas tail 5 degrees long and a dust tail at a right angle to the gas...lovely!

I really miss Holmes, Perseus has never looked the same since. I have my fingers crossed that a really bright comet will arrive suddenly in the near future!

Indeed. I think that was the last comet easily visible with the naked eye except for Holmes - Tuttle was just about a naked eye object at about this time last year but was never spectacular.

and here is that nice comet...

http://www.tboeckel.de/EFSF/efsf_ps/machholz/8_1/pass_net_1.jpg

The following information was supplied by Michael Mattiazzo...

''I wonder if anyone else has noticed that we are observing comet C/2007 N3 Lulin "edge-on". With incredible fortune, the orbital inclination of the comet is 178 degrees. i.e. virtually in the same orbital plane as the Earth.
This means from Earth's perspective, we will observe the comet edge-on throughout the apparition! The effect of this is to enhance the surface brightness of the comet and its dust tail. Take the deep sky example of an edge-on galaxy being more readily observable than one that is face-on.

Recently posted images are displaying the sharp sunward pointing dust tail (anti tail) in PA 100, along with the ion tail at PA 280. The dust tail should remain at approximately PA 100 to 110 and appear as a sharply defined "needle-like" appendage. Since most of the dust particles are released in the comets wake, the dust tail will rapidly lengthen after Lulin's flyby of the Earth on Feb 24, length uncertain but perhaps a few degrees long. The ion tail however will appear considerably shortened, since it will be pointing directly away from the Sun when the comet is located at opposition on Feb 26. Looking forward to observing this unusual comet''.

Thanks for the info Martin. Wow, I'm eager to see this comet   ::)

I don't plan to observe tonight, but if the forecast is true, the next night (Jan.6/7) will be completely clear in Poltava. I haven't seen such great forecast since November  :o  :)

P.S. I already have a nice list of planned observations on the Christmas (orthodox) day:
Lunar occultation of HIP13892 at 02:27EET
Comet C/2007 N3 at 6h
(still there...) evening planets at 16-17h
Comet 144P
Lunar occultation of Pleiades at 18:50-20:30
:)

The best of luck with your comet hunting Roman. It is still clear here so if this holds out I will get out before dawn. I can't see that low from my home so I will have to carry the tripod and my 90mm ETX out the road to catch Lulin. I'm eager to see this anti-tail now. The last time I seen a stunning sunward spike on a comet was with F4 Bradfield, it was only visible for a few mornings before the Earth-Sun-Comet angle changed. I was lucky to get it clear and saw it twice, many others never seen it so I was very lucky. It was stunning.

John 9929 just remined me about the Moon-pleiades occultation today. Fancy starting a new thread for that anyone? It takes place on Wed. It's important info...

Here's the updated skyhound finder chart for Lulin...

http://www.skyhound.com/cometchasing/comets/2007_N3.gif

I have been studying the APOD picture as well as finder charts, and am ready to wake up early and spot Lulin! maybe image as well. From the APOD picture it looks like the mag is really conservative, looks to me like its at least a mag 6.5 maybe even 6 (though im not an expert [duh]) Maybe imaging is not realiable for calculating Magnitudes? anyway, im going right now to check out Jupiter and Mercury.

It is approx. +7.0mag which is quite nice.
The last report is from J.J.Gonzalez on Jan.05

Anybody in Europe had seen the comet last night?
I missed the last night but the next night (Jam.6/7) still remains to be my main target. Thanks for the heads up, Martin  :) I haven't seen any comets since C/2007W1 in August, so I'll try my best at N3 LuLin.

I tried this morning, Figured I could stay inside and easily spot it with the Bino's. Totally forgot about atmospheric Extinction. lol So I had to get the scope out. I still didnt spot it though (Twilight Had begun before I went out there), I think Ill have to wait at least 2 more weeks till it is easily visible.

Oh well, Better Luck to you all. and Clear Skies!

I don't think it is too hard to find now. You must try it on every clear morning imho.  :)

This info was posted by John F from the UKWW...

Comet Lulin is also one to watch for another reason.

It will be moving fast, quickly across the sky in february. Its movement will be fast enough to be viewable in seconds for the experienced observers with telescopes and in minutes for those with binoculars. See here for a little more detail from Sky & Telescope.

Quote:

Lulin’s closest approach to Earth, 0.41 a.u. (61 million km), occurs on February 24th, when the comet may reach a peak of magnitude 5. By now it's visible in late evening (after rising around the end of astronomical twilight) and remains in view for the rest of the night.

And it's speeding along at just over 5° per day! That's about 1 arcsecond every 5 seconds of time, enough to show obvious motion during a short telescopic observing session. Similarly, that's 1 arcminute per 5 minutes of time if you're using binoculars.

This is fast! 

Which makes it a b*gg*r to stack images .... Let's hope it's big enough to make a moderate focal length adequate, and bright enough not to need too deep an exposure!

Brian, any idea what that speed is on MPH or KM/sec?. Someone asked this question on another forum and would love to know the answer.

Tyler, you could be rite, I suspect the mag estimates for this comet will jump as soon as it climbs into a higher region of sky. It certainly looks obious enough on the APOD page.

It was clear all night last night, I got up before dawn and it was cloudy everywhere..unbelievable. Attempt number 2 tonight.

Here's the sky & telescope article about the comet....

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/35992534.html

I think the hits on this thread are going to sky rocket in the weeks ahead. It will probably be our biggest yet!

Easy enough to work out - one arc sec is 1/206265 of a radian (the angle whose arc is equal to its radius) so 1 arc sec / 5 secs is one millionth of the distance per second (plus 3 and a bit percent) ... the distance at closest approach being 0.41 AU = 61.5 million km, the speed must be 61.5 km/sec (plus 3 and a bit percent) i.e. 63 km/sec to 2 decimal places. Or 140,000 mph. Sounds about right since the comet's orbit is retrograde.

Thanks very much for that Brian, that's excellent information!

I think so too. This topic will me more popular than 2 December conjunctions. 
I hope we'll see here many reports and images in the month ahead. :)

From Sky&Telescope article
If it crosses ecliptic and passes close to Earth, can it cause a meteor shower?

P.S. The weather gives me a chance for the next morning, but it will be a hard one: -23C is already outside :o

 Martin, I think this thread will be very popular as well, with observing reports and images, I just hope that those of us with no deep sky imaging equiptment can still get some good shots. I might have to build a barndoor tracker  ;D

I know how you feel Tyler. I feel restricted by just having a camera on a static tripod. However, maybe we can make for the bigger gear by being more creative with our images  :).  My plan of attack on Lulin will be basic but effective...visual observing, sketching and camera shots!

Whatever you use...enjoy the comet!

Great plan! My is the same.  :)
Oh, if only it would be clear when the comet will pass 2^o near Saturn, fingers crossed  ::)

P.S. No more clear skies here. It started snowing previous late night, and it is constantly snowing... even now! 

I had my first attempt at trying to catch Lulin before dawn this morning between 05.00 and 05.30. Due to the comet's low elevation I had to go for a walk to a higher vantage point up a hill near my home. I had to carry my tripod and 90mm ETX with me. The sky was clear but in poor shape with a near full Moon low in the W and light fog in the E all happening under a severe frost. The whole place was white and rock hard. I was quite taken aback by the low temp which made messing about with clamps and metal dust caps a real pain. I did a few sweeps for Lulin but I knew it was in vain due to the murk. The ETX shook and wobbled on the flimsy tripod causing the stars to dance all over the place. The stars didn't want to stay in focus either. Feeling raged and frustrated I packed up half an hour later. Here's an image looking towards the comet at 05.30. You can see Libra and Ophiuchus. Hopefully the sky will be better on my next effort. The Moon is up all night now.

(http://i44.tinypic.com/10mt1kg.jpg)

Glad you at least had a partial clearing Martin, even though you didnt see it yet either. I might have to try tonight, maybe ill do an all night observing session! lol. A guy from Kansas imaged it yesterday... here (right now this is probably the best we could do, But I dont even have a prime lens [i did just get a new laptop though  :) So in the next month I should get my website going]) ANYWAYS here is the link...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kansashorizons/3179503081/sizes/o/

EDIT: no observing tonight for me, 1/2" of snow instead (all we get anymore is 1" snowstorms)

Is it still inside the dawn for you, Martin?
I had hopes for 2 or 3 recents nights but even hadn't taken the scope out - the weather got worse in the morning. I could possibly see it now if only I had clear skies. Instead I have another snowstorm which started today in the afternoon.

Have seen it already on Spaceweather  :)

It sure is Roman. It was actually lower than I thought. I will have to wait until morning twilight to catch it at its highest point before dawn. At least it's getting higher each night. Stormy weather here until Sunday then cold again and possibly stormy again. There should be cold air returning after this so we will hopefully get a good clear sky. I hope the weather is good for everyone else on here.

Tyler, many thanks for the link. That's a good image. Lulin looks quite bright, I wonder if it's being underestimated by observers?. That recent visual obsv and sketch looks encouraging!. That's a good finder chart you have on your site!

Here's a few of the latest images and sketchs on Lulin from over the world.

(http://i41.tinypic.com/2wecqv5.jpg)

(http://i42.tinypic.com/vfbkw3.jpg)

(http://i42.tinypic.com/zum8sm.jpg)

(http://i40.tinypic.com/znr2fa.jpg)

(http://i41.tinypic.com/fb9j4z.jpg)

(http://i43.tinypic.com/nxqmo1.jpg)

Jeremy perez (the guy that made that sketch) estimated the magnitude to be 6. so idk what to expect. Im trying very morning to spot it, just no clear dry mornings yet. hopefully soon though.

That sketch is looking better to me than some photos. Fantastic sketching!
Thanks for uploading all that images, Martin  :)

I don't know why does it happens to me. The forecast for last night was very good, but it was cloudy till morning, cleared only after sunrise. And now it's completely clear  :-\

Don't let it worry you, it happens to all of us!

Roman, I have had clear skies during the day and early evening, but clouded over every night for the last 8 nights! every morning I have waken up early I have been greeted with terrible conditions :(

Same here. Last night was clear, I set the alarm for 05.30...and I never heard it so I slept through!. Clear again tonight so I will try again. Good luck all.

Lol Martin! I have the same problem, I sleep through my alarms all the time. Like this morning I woke up to snowplows, and people shoveling kept me awake til 6 then I went back to sleep and slept through all my alarms. I usually have to set 3 to 4 to be able to hear one. lol it sucks

I've heard my grandad had three, timed at 1 minute intervals - the first at the bedside, the second at the far side of the room and the third at the bottom of the stairs.

That is not only your problem, Martin  ;D

I am the same  ;D
Usually I set 2 alarms - first quiet, second loud 3-5 minutes later. But recently I had some troubles (when woke up at 10AM instead of late night session) so when the observation is important I use a horrible alarm of my mobile phone  >:( - I think it can wake up even the dead people lol 

LOl....they need to make these alarm clocks louder!

This is actually the first time this as happened to me in a long time because I was exceptionally tired. Normally I would wake up before the alarm because of my internal body clock. If this doesn't work the alarm does the job. I use my mobile phone alarm and it seems to do the job although there are a few occasions when I feel like throwing it at the wall  ;D.

Out again last night looking for the comet between 05.30 and 06.00. Clear spells but fast moving cu from the S where constantly crossing the horizon and illuminated intense white by the Moon. Could see parts of Ophiuchus and Libra but not where the comet was. Swept the area with the 10x50's without success. I have a feeling I might catch it on the night of the storm though.

Good luck all.

Yes, the weather was deteriorating towards dawn .... I actually packed up about 0615 as it was obvious that conditions weren't going to improve. Much worse tonight, an "unexpected" patch of clear sky appeared around 1715 but it was gone by 1830, that looks like it for the night if the forecast & the Met Office satellite images are anything to go by.

If the storm doesn't get you ....

I have much better conditions now - I can easily go to sleep until morning ...Wednesday.  ;D Maybe the weather here is not stormy but it is much of rain/snow/etc. here since yesterday and it will stay for at least a few days (or possibly more than a week). Only the web helps me not to forgot about astronomy...  :-\

Checked outside at 2115 & discovered sky partly clear, it stayed that way for about an hour but with poor transparency (high cloud) & the variable star observer's bane, thin partially transparent low cloud blowing in the breeze making observations difficult. Nevertheless managed to make a few estimates with binoculars, didn't bother with scope as it didn't look as though it would last as long as it did! Set alarm for 0500 but sky was completely solid at that time - completely clear at 0745 so there amy have been a "Lulin slot" for someone west of me.

Still fairly clear as I write (0950) but signs of increasing high cloud & the wind seems to be picking up ahead of the threatened major storm.

well I finally got my first peak at the comet this morning! It was not visible through my binoculars, however, had I been in a dark location I would imagine it would be easily seen. Lined up the scope, and (took a while, But) I spotted it. It was more dim  than I had imagined, I could see the 8.5 magnitude stars in the same view as Lulin (almost more easily than Lulin) since they were more finer points of light, due to the coma, it looked more dim, But non-the-less, it is very visible in light polluted skies (and even through the begining of twilight).

Now that I have seen it, I need to wake up even eariler, to drive to a dark site, for observing.

Hope you all have luck soon with this one!

Congratulations!

Yes, diffuse objects are harder to see than sharp ones (stars) which are two or three magnitudes fainter. You can get a feel for this by looking at a star cluster and throwing the focus way out, so that the stars become large diffuse blobs instead of sharp points. In fact this is a good way of estimating the magnitude of a comet - compare it to a star which is defocused to that it appears about the same size. Not perfect, of course, because the defocused stars have nice sharp edges & a comet doesn't.

Lulin still has a couple of magnitudes to brighten, as well as moving North and West away from the twilight. There don't seem to be any "pretty" images of it (difficult in the twilight) but the images that do exist show an interesting structure with an unusual "spike" projecting ahead of the comet as well as the usual ion tail trailing behind it.

Congratulations Tyler.

I have found a great photo by Gennadiy Borisov (link (http://www.astronomy.ru/forum/index.php/topic,29295.msg863949.html#msg863949)). Both tail & anti-tail are clearly visible
(220mm telescope F/2.3 exposure 3x5min)
(http://www.astronomy.ru/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=29295.0;attach=164274;image)
(http://i049.radikal.ru/0901/97/a07690193c9d.jpg)

Tyler, congratulations on catching comet Lulin!. I'm delighted to see that someone has been successful after all the effort put in lately. This thread has officaly come to life now. I hope your good fortune with the clear weather will affect the rest of us here  :). Maybe when Lulin gets higher it will start to show off a bit more. Low level diffuse comae with generous diameters can be unimpressive until they climb north. I will be very interested to hear about your impression of the comet when you make the trip to the country. Congrats again Tyler, there are so few visual reports around so far which amazes me but I'm glad you have set the scene for the next month or so. Good luck again tonight.

Thanks for sharing those great images Roman!

I was up until 06.15 UT last night and despite the forecast giving the front to clear it never did. It rained heavily until 04.00 then some scary sounding winds picked up for a period. Before this hit I could hear a loud rumble in the distance for 5 min's as if I lived near the Ocean. Then they arrived screaming and whistling through the neighbourhood. They subsided but the cloud remained so I went to bed annoyed. I didn't sleep very well because I didn't see the comet lol. Tonight however could be productive!

Got an observation of Lulin this morning - it's brighter than I expected, really obvious in 10x50 binoculars even though low in a badly polluted direction from my observing site. In 8" LX90 x59, an elliptical coma approx. 15 x 10 arc minutes, broadening into a hint of a tail North preceding. Quite strongly condensed though without an obvious nucleus.

Imaged the field with Canon 40D, 300mm, 10 x 15 sec + 10 x 30 sec @ f/4, ISO 800 between 0536 & 0556 UT 23 Jan 2009
(http://www.bbhvig.uklinux.net/C2007N3-090123-300.jpg)

I know it's not saying much but this is (already) the best comet since Tuttle early last year. If it brightens as expected it will be a nice sight, it's already bright enough that it must be visible with the naked eye given a transparent site and a dark sky with the comet reasonably high above the horizon.

Oh, I feel that the comet hunting season has just started...  ;D

Congrats Brian :)
I still have overcast weather and it will be plenty of rain next week.

Glad you got to spot it Brian! and thanks for sharing that image, it's a beauty! I look forward to more of your images, through this comets pass.

I guess either im in more light polluted skies than you, or 10x50 binos are WAY better than my 7x25. Great report, I enjoyed it  :)

Brian, excellent job on getting that great image of Lulin!. I enjoyed reading your report which confirmed my own obsv about the comet being brighter than what's recently been reported. I was lucky to get a clear sky last night and caught the comet. I took a few rubbish images and made a sketch along with a short report...

(http://i41.tinypic.com/11c5gsg.jpg)

(http://i40.tinypic.com/5bsdtz.jpg)

(http://i42.tinypic.com/2qmp20p.jpg)

Before dawn on the morning of January 23rd 2009 I made my very first observation of comet C/2007 N3 Lulin. The reward took a long time in coming because I had been up before the Sun every single morning for several weeks in the hope of making an early observation of this exciting comet. However, due to clouds, severe air frosts, and dense fog the comet alluded me during this period. This morning I woke up just after 05.00 UT to a great clear sky. It was very cold and frosty with slippery ice on the ground but the sky was in good shape. I grabbed by camera, tripod, and 10x50mm binoculars (B50) and got prepared to track down the comet. Lulin was too low in the sky to see from home so I had to walk up to a hill which was several hundreds metres away. I glanced into the east and saw the bright stars of Scorpius and Libra. I spent 15 min's scanning with B50 without success and came to the conclusion that I really needed something more powerful for a proper look.

I decided to go back home and get the 8.5" F/7 dobsonian reflector but due to its weight I had to lift it in two sections. This involved four trips to get the rocker box and tube to my comet hunting location. After I took a few min's to catch my breath I checked that the telrad was aligned then guided the scope into western Scorpius. I began a series of vertical sweeps while gradually working my way S into Libra. After a few min's I found Lulin a few degrees below 38 Librae at 05.29 UT. This was my first new comet observation of 2009 and the 48th comet I have hunted down since I began many years ago so I was delighted!. I observed the comet for 30 min's in the frigid conditions then brought the scope back home again which involved four more trips. When I entered the my back garden I realized that the comet was actually visible just above my fence in the SE so my previous trip was in vain. I got comfortable and began to study Lulin in comfort.

My immediate impression was that the comet was very bright. It struck me just how healthy and active the coma looked even at a casual glance. The coma was at least 7' in dia with a very intense white-coloured and disk-shaped central condensation with star-like false nucleus at centre. The outer coma was an obvious green colour. On several occasions I seen at least one jet within the coma pointing to the S. The anti-tail was very faint and elusive and required good dark adaption and averted vision. I noticed that it didn't point directly towards the Sun but slightly to the W of S which is something I have not seen on images or in other reports. By this stage the background sky in the FOV was grey and hazy. I had to move the scope in various directions to pick out the faint details so I'm not 100% certain about what I saw. I found the colourless anti-tail to be at least 20' long but I suspected it to be much longer. The gas/ion tail was much brighter and pointed in a generally S direction. To me this tail was green and sported a smooth profile and seemed to broaden with distance away from the coma much like a search beam. I could easily see the tail for a minimum of 1 degree but again I'm sure it's much longer that this. Seeing both tails at the same time was quite a treat!

Despite the very poor quality of my binoculars I was still able to find the comet easily. I also tried very carefully to detect it with the naked eye but I just couldn't convince myself that it was visible. However, I suspect that with excellent sky conditions the first naked eye observations will be reported very soon. As for a magnitude estimate, I didn't really make one because I was trying to ferret out the details within the tail but based on the ease of which I could see the coma in the scope I would say approx mag +6.5, give or take a mag or so on either side. I think this comet could very well put on a good show in Feb as along as it continues to brighten. I will be watching Lulin every clear morning for now on. I ended the night with a mug of tea and watched the twilight arch grow. It was 07.15 UT before I finally left the comet alone to continue it's journey towards Earth.

Great report, Martin. The sketch is awesome!  :) Congratulations!!!

After reading your report I can assume that it is almost as good as 8P/Tuttle. (if don't mention the tails - it is surely better with tails.)

Thanks very much Roman. Yip, Lulin is MUCH better that Tuttle. I couldn't even compare the two. I think this comet might rival Q2 Machholz if it can reach a good mag. This comet is being underestimated for some time now so it must be brighter than what others are reporting. I was delighted to read Brian's report because it matched exactly what I was thinking. Let's wait and see.  :)

Hope you get the clear sky soon Roman.

Martin Awesome report and sketch! Really a great read. Im glad some more people have finally had some luck with the weather, I won't be able to view for about a week now, as we are expecting some snow on sunday night. I really hope this comet turns out to be great  :)

Good Luck Roman! I hope you get to see it soon  :)

Thanks very much Tyler!. I hope you get a clear sky again soon. I was up this morning but it was cloudy despite being clear all through the night. Will try again on Sun morning.  :)

Hmmm - the transparency went poor after midnight & was especially bad in the south & south west, with high cloud plus some thin stratus, but at my location it did remain observable over most of the sky. I managed to see Lulin through the murk but not no effect other than being able to say that I'd seen it, and wouldn't have been able to find it without the aid of a computerized mount or setting circles ... at its best, the two brightest stars in Libra were just about visible to the naked eye! I suppose it does prove how bright the comet is!

The deterioration in transparency, together with a technical problem (flat batteries in the polar scope in my Astrotrac, due to brain failure last time I used it) prevented my attempt to image Holmes and/or the gegenschein.

Probably. I bet mine cost more, too. (Swarovski SLC - really crisp images, very high contrast because of the super high quality coatings as well as having brighter images just from the bigger objective area/magnification ratio.)

The most recent brightest mag estimate I can find for Lulin is mag +6.8 on Yoshida's comet page but I still think it might be brighter than this. Another observer made it at mag +7.1 on Jan 23rd which I don't agree with at all. There still seems to be a wide variation with estimates. There are not enough people observing the comet though which is the main problem!

Here's a recent image (Jan 21st) by Michael Jager.

(http://i42.tinypic.com/10h0k6d.jpg)

Great image Brian of lulin and i hope it brightens as expected i have yet to see it my self hopefully when it gains a more favourable time.

I enjoyed reading your report Martin and your sketch is first rate.

Jonathan.

Thanks Jonathan!

Dennis Put from the Netherlands contacted me this evening and wished to share his recent observations of comet Lulin (I think these are the most recent around) with me. I thought I would post them here to keep the Lulin reports active. He is going for the mag +7 range. Thanks Dennis.

http://www.dennisput.nl/lulin.html

Most observers estimated N3 Lulin at 6.8...7.1mag recently. I worry a bit about it - it may be only 6.0 mag in maximum (as someone predicted). Let's hope it will be more bright.

P.S. Today I had clear skies in the daytime, but it became overcast since 6PM. I had a bit of time to observe Venus and ISS before the clouds occupied the sky. There are still some little chances to have a clearance before dawn, but I can suppose that the weather won't be great during the next 10 days.   :(

I didn't care to attach an estimate to my recent obs but I'm sure it was brighter than that - maybe 5.5.

Incidentally "The Astronomer" Jan 2009 reports a single estimate of Lulin, mag. 7.4 on Dec 29.25 by Reinder Bouma (Netherlands); the ephemeris in the same issue gives the magnitude rising from 8.0 on Jan 20 to 6.1 on Feb 20. So the ephemeris mag must have been around 9 at the end of Dec making the ephemeris faint by ~1.5 mags ....

It's not overperforming the way that 144P (Kushida) has, but still on course for a nice show at the end of Feb.

I woke up at 4:30 this morning, about two hours before twilight starts, and began the search, I went outside with my binoculars to find relatively where the comet should be, but for some reason despite totally clear skies I was having trouble spotting mag 5's with my binoculars! At this point I thought of going to a dark sky spot, but having to be back by 7 to go to class didn't sound fun (now I regret this decision)

 Being only 4 degrees outside, I decided to try my search from inside, through a window. I set up the scope, I tried to look through the binos at the end of the scope, and move around until I found my "red dot" (which is my finder scope) in the binos, then use the small adjustments to line up with the particular object,  this makes it much easier to line up with dimmer objects (at least in light pollution) But, remember I was having trouble seeing mag 5's, so I had to do my best with lining it up, meanwhile I have the laptop next to me with stellarium and finder charts for lulin. So Im looking from inside from 5 to 6 am, after having no luck, I decided to head outside into the cold and test my luck, but, I didn't have any in the 20 minutes I was outside! Maybe the sky conditions sucked, or maybe the first time I spotted it a week ago, It was super clear, I don't know for sure. I was really upset I didn't go somewhere darker. The one good thing about this is that I am sure going to make myself take the hour drive to a dark spot next clear morning, only this time I'll be getting up at 4.

Strange .... perhaps there was some high cloud in that direction, cirrostratus can block light quite effectively without being visible as cloud.

Hi Tyler, that was really odd indeed but maybe as Brian said there was upper level cloud around, any of that can really hamper even a bright comet plus atmospheric extinction too. I think the trip to a darker site would do the trick. Track the comet down in the scope first then when you find it turn the binos on it. I wish you the best of luck with it, make sure you let us know how you get on. I haven't seen the comet since Jan 23rd (fogged out last night) so when I read your report I was concerned that the comet had faded or something....this can happen to new comets entering the inner solar system for the first time, or at least the production of dust can slow down. Hopefully this is not the case. keep us posted!

Cheers

Well done Dennis!. Good to hear that the comet is getting brighter. I'm still waiting for a second observation of this comet. Could you send me over your clear weather?  :). Keep up the good work.

The forecast for NI has this front which has ground to a halt over us being shoved out into the Atlantic over the next couple of days as continental polar air digs in across the UK. So hopefully we may get some clear skies later in the weekend.

Very good sketch, Dennis.  :)
Had you estimated its brightness?

Well done Dennis. Good work catching the gas tail and anti-tail. Any idea how bright it is?. I'm reading about alot of conflicting reports lately. Some are saying it's visible in 35mm binos yet others are saying it is faint and diffuse although I don't know how they can call Lulin diffuse.

Perhaps we get a chance to see it for ourselves tomorrow morning - the forecast & satellite images give hope that the sky may clear after midnight.

When I saw it last week (as reported above) it was definitely easy in 10x50 bins despite being quite badly placed for me. Diffuse? Well, comets tend to be that way, though Lulin is much less so than e.g. Kushida.

Forecast was sort of a bit right - there was indeed a clearance of the frontal cloud but also lots of (unforecast) stratocumulus, which never broke in the south & south east. If I'd been 10 or 20 miles North West of my current location I might have been able to see the comet, but I would have had very wet feet as I'd have been standing in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean!

Many observers reported it recently at 6.5mag. I think it is already an easy object.  :)
Michael Matiazzo's report:

P.S. I have some chances of better skies on Tue-Wed next week, but in general the weather will stay bad. Nevertheless, there are 2 months ahead, and they couldn't be completely overcast.  ;D

I stayed up until 06.30 but it was 100% cloudy here with no stars visible. The pre-dawn hours during Monday might be favourable.

Thanks for the mag estimates Roman. Michael's estimates are very close to my own 'guestimate'.

The 5th mag peak doesn't sound very interesting at all. This comet has come a long away since it was progged to reach 4th mag late last year. Let's hope there's an outburst! Regardless of how bright it gets, or doesn't get, at least there is a rare anti-tail to study.  :)

'Fraid that stratocumulus sheet looks distinctly unholy >:(

Thanks roman lets hope it clears up towards the end of this month.

I observed and imaged Lulin this morning for a good hour from 05:30UT. It was an easy object in the 10x50 binos but still could not pick it up with the naked eye. I would stick my neck out and say mag 6.5. I took several images using the 50mm 1.8 lens ISO1600 and only 10 seconds at f2.0, this was enough the bring up the dinstinct green colour of this comet. It is easily visible just below center in the image below which was taken at 06:14UT when the comet was very close to the southern meridian.
(http://i39.tinypic.com/2gspeyo.jpg)

Hey John, excellent image there. You picked up the comet very clearly!. Enjoyed the Lulin-relatef text messages at the hour.  That 50mm lens is great.

I was out before dawn this morning (feb 2nd) to be greeted by a clear sky and freezing temps. I began a sweep through Libra with the 8.5" F/7 reflector and found C/2007 N3 Lulin in less than a min. However, clouds where racing in from the E so I had less than 30 sec's to take in the details. I could see a long ion tail and very slender anti-tail, both of which were faint. The coma was large and vivid green in colour with a white central condensation and false nucleus. The coma looked more diffuse/soft compared with my previous observation on Jan 23rd. Soon it was overcast but it cleared again after 15 min's. Then remarkably, it began snowing. This was very strange because the sky was completely clear and yet I could see an active snow flurry with very large snow flakes dancing wildly below the street lights, yet above the snow where stars!. It was amazing because there wasn't any clouds in sight. The snow continued for another 15 min's then stopped. I then picked up Lulin with ease using 10x50mm binoculars a few degrees to the E of Alpha Librae (Zubenelgenubi). In fact, the comet shared the same binocular field with this bright naked eye star. Lulin was in close proximity with 21 and 22 Librae. I reckoned it was easily mag +6.5 or brighter but time was an issue because more clouds appeared so I was only getting short glimpses. John McConnell and I were swapping text messages at this time of the morning, John could see it easily using his own 10x50's. Then just as the glow of morning twilight arrived a better clearance developed so I took a few quick images....

(http://i44.tinypic.com/iw7vhf.jpg)

(http://i44.tinypic.com/2v12hq9.jpg)

Congratulations, John and Martin. I see the comet in both images.  :)

Though I have some doubt about the fact that the comet is now better than 8P/Tuttle - I observed Tuttle at max 5.8-5.9mag, so the N3 Lulin isn't as bright yet.

P.S. The pressure is rising here since Sat., so the possibilty of clearances exists within two next days. ::) (Today I have seen both Sun & Moon through the clouds - and it is fairly good after a week of nothing)  ;D

Thanks Roman, hope you get to see Lulin again soon, it's lovely looking in the binos and set to maybe get better. I agree that Tuttle was better than Lulin now is but who can tell what might happen over the next few weeks, and at least Lulin has a tail/s. Hopefully it will not be cloudy when it is brightest.

Let me introduce my page of this comet http://www.poltava-astro.narod.ru/comets/c2007n3/c2007n3_visibility_eng.htm
(including finder charts until Feb.26 - haven't done the other yet)
My observations will be also there when only they arrive.

P.S. You can also view a page of currently bright comets (http://www.poltava-astro.narod.ru/comets_eng.html) (updated 2-3 times in a week)

Roman, I have to say, you have a GREAT page on Lulin, may I suggest you put a link to your site in your signature? I keep forgetting you have one.

Keep up the good work!  ;)

Thanks Tyler.
It is in my profile, but OK, I will write it in the sighnature also   ::)

Great images John,Martin nicely caught!

Jonathan

Check out the latest Lulin images on page 4 of the Spaceweather.com gallery...

http://www.spaceweather.com/comets/gallery_lulin_page4.htm?PHPSESSID=n6cmbt593qi71lm71c6v5n4hs0

The CCD guys are picking up impressive colours in the tail.  :)

Thanks Martin  :), I didn't notice Tony put up those. I'm excited to see what people will get at the peak (hopefully mag 5.5 at least)

There's now a disconection event with comet Lulin...

Today we wanted to make some wide-field imaging of comet C/2007 N3 (LULIN), in search for large scale structural features.In our image (details in the caption):

http://tinyurl.com/bugep4

is clearly visible the characteristic dichotomy of this comet: a dusty anti-tail pointing toward the Sun (i.e. to South-East) and the highly structured ion (plasma) tail toward West,Northwest. This uncommon configuration, is due to the particular geometric circumstances occuring during these nights, with the comet seen nearly head-on as seen from Earth.

Moreover, 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 (evidenced by a red circle in this rendition):

http://tinyurl.com/bwryaj

The DE indicates that the comet has recently passed through a disturbance in the magnetic field carried by the solar wind, that destroyed the original plasma tail, creating a new one. The separation of the two ion tails indentified by the DE, is visible in our image as a kind of elongated and diffuse "knot" along the plasma tail.

A 3x zoomed view of this feature is available here:

http://tinyurl.com/ar9vsr

The "knot" is dragged tailward by the solar wind, and will dissipate soon. More events like this are expected in the near future, when comet LULIN will approah Earth. Comet aficionados, heads-up!

by Ernesto Guido, Giovanni Sostero and Paul camilleri

Did you guys see the wide field on spaceweather of Lulin and zubenelgunubi? I think I spelled that right...

http://spaceweather.com/submissions/pics/j/Jeff-Greenwald-lulin_02052009_1200x800_1233862192.jpg?PHPSESSID=los6g4lmp9a0idm80plln61ek7

Beautiful Tail and anti tail visible even from that focal length. (By the way, Im sitting outside on my deck, because its 60 degrees, and I have a glossy screen, and can't even see what Im typing, Lol, gotta get some sun before it gets cold again)

It should be clear tommorow morning here, I hope to observe since Lulin will be so close to 2.6 mag. Zubenelgunubi

Hi Tyler, I seen the image and thought it was a good one. I was also impressed by this image...

http://spaceweather.com/submissions/large_image_popup.php?image_name=James-Champagne-Comet-Lulin_1233856110.jpg

I could imagine you sitting out there in the Sun lol. I can't wait to get doing that again myself!

Good luck with Lulin. I might get to see it tonight also.  :)

haha, Martin, that link you sent was the one I meant to post, but as I said earlier I couldn't see. The photo you posted was the one I was refering to with the tail and anti tail very visible, sorry guys. Lol maybe I should have brought sunglasses 8)

Maybe not... nobody knows  ;D
Just say 'alpha Librae' or 'a Lib' or 'HIP 72603' and everybody will understand you here  ;)

Zubenelgenubi ::)

BTW I don't know the HIP designations ... but I'll give you Flamsteed 8 Librae, GC 19970 for the fainter (northern) component & Flamsteed 9 Librae, GC 19975 for the brighter (southern) component of the double which comprises alpha Librae.

Anyhow the comet was clearly visible near it this morning despite poor observing conditions - lots of drifting cloud preventing any attempt at imaging, plus interference from the Moon which will be a nuisance for the next 10 days (at least). The large elliptical coma is still evident, less condensed than previously, and my 10x50 binoculars showed a couple of degrees of the ion tail. The dust (anti)tail is short & faint.

The comet was also visible in my tiny 4x20 binoculars, though not as clearly as with the 10x50 Swaros. It was hard to see 7th mag stars in the 4x20s, so the comet must have been significantly brighter than that.

I observed comet Lulin this morning between 05.40 and 06.10 UT despite the glow from the bright Moon low in the NW. The scope revealed the dust and ion tails including two, and possibly three radial features within the coma which I assumed were jets. The coma was large, soft, and diffuse. It was easy in 10x50mm binos so I had a try at seeing it without optical aid. I stood in the shadow of my house to block the Moon and cupped my hands around my eyes to stop distacting stray light. Over a 20 min period I glimpsed the comet perhaps a a dozen times with the naked eye as a large grey patch of light very close above Alpha Librae. This comet is brighter than thought!

My instincts though, from the view in the scope, tell me that this comet is a dud. It won't get very bright unless there is a fragmentation event/outburst. The tails are extremely faint. We will find out what will happen during the next dark period. Fingers crossed for something unexpected!

Congrats on seeing it without optical aid, which proves it's at least the best comet since Tuttle this time last year.

True, Lulin is already past perihelion, but it's got to get a lot closer to us yet .... and the sky will be moonless at the time of closest approach, when it should be 1 - 1.5 mags brighter than it is now. It's not going to be a great comet, but we're unlikely to see a better one this year.

Yeah well done seeing it with the naked eye Martin, that has to be one of the first sightings, from here anyway? I didn't wait up after our 'phone chat as the sky was very hazy and didn't expect I would see it, in any case the moon was so bright it just made the conditions worse.

Thanks very much Brian and John. I haven't heard of any other naked eye sightings yet (anywhere) but it certainly was visible...with difficulty. The sighting confirms your observation Brian about it being easily seen in 20mm binos and possibly brighter. The mag estimates must really come down to aperture effect. Looking forward to the 1 to 1.5 increase in mag soon. At least it will be better than Tuttle as you said. Fingers crossed for an outburst. The coma is bright but the tails are currently a sorry sight visually at the moment. Having said that ,I'm sure I glimpsed both of them in the 10x50s. Seen two sats passing near the coma in the scope which was cool. I was quite sure the anti-tail was much longer than others are reporting also. The sky was 100% clear at the time with the trans varying between 7-8/10. Before hand I seen a faint moonbow and a few hail and snow showers. Temp was -4 degrees.

Check out this latest image from Michael Jaeger. Look at the background galaxies!
http://spaceweather.com/comets/lulin/05feb09/Michael-JAcger1.jpg

Congratulations Martin. A naked eye observation sounds very encouraging.  :) What was the magnitude and NELM?

Chris Wyatt from Australia reported a naked-eye observation on Feb.03 (this is the first report I have seen)
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/CometObs/message/3319

Thanks for the link John, Michael Jager never disappoints when it comes to comet images!

Thanks for that link Roman. The observation is encouraging.

I reckoned the comet had to have been around mag +6.0 or +6.1 as a guesstimate. I don't record limiting mags of the stars because I think it's pointless.  :). ..but at a guess, I would say +6.3 with averted vision in that low area. It was better higher up.

You have no light pollution there? and the Moon was up?  :o Hmm, I'm a bit wondered to hear that - "despite the glow from the bright Moon low in the NW", "+6.3 with averted vision in that low area" - you have very good sky conditions!

Well, I can't judge on sky conditions now because I have already forgot what does the sky look like...  :(
3 1/2 weeks with no clear sky and 5 days of 100% overcast - it is already quite disappointing. Today again - rain and fog...

Meanwhile some people have sucess with it.
Photo by Gennadiy Borisov (from S. Ukraine), taken from here (http://www.astronomy.ru/forum/index.php/topic,29295.msg876815.html#msg876815)
(http://s45.radikal.ru/i109/0902/a8/0aec916fe5e0.jpg)
I like the ion tail :)

Excellent image there!

Page 6 of the SW gallery us updated...

http://www.spaceweather.com/comets/gallery_lulin_page6.htm

Check out the image on the homepage. Some great images arriving in now.

Roman, when the Moon is low the sky is not so badly effected, the Moon is opposite the comet also. With good dark adaption, patience, breathing excercises, and by shielding any local lights you can see to a very good depth. This gets easier with practise. The sky tran was pretty good but no brilliant. On an excellent night here I can see M81 without optical aid, and that's with scattered light pollution. Hope this answers your question.

Yup ... at 15 degrees altitude to the South or South East my NELM would be around 4. 6 overhead would be excellent at my site, and I wouldn't get there with the moon in the sky.

Haha, Friday night. Im staying up all night (or at least till spot lulin) Finally a night where I don't have to wake up for anything. Hopefully in about 3 hours I will make my second observation.  :o

Wish me clear skies

Best of luck Tyler!!.

Seen it this morning in the 10x50's. It was very easy even in the intense Moonlight.

That's what I'm talking about.
I tried to classify my sky by Bortle. Well, I'm not much sure in my estimate (because the LP in my S-SW is much greater than in N-NW and the weather often interferes), I could say it is somewhere between 5 (on best nights) and 6 (more usual).

Good luck, Tyler  :)

Well of course I fell asleep at 2 on my couch, right as I was about to go outside  :-\ but luckily I randomly awoke at 545, and busted outside.

Knowing it's exact location, I easily spotted it with 7x35 Bino's Then I lined the scope up and viewed for a few minutes. It was not spectacular by any means, I just saw a small coma, but I guess thats what you get in Light polluted skies. I really can't wait for it to be higher in the sky at a more reasonable time (I have given up on waking up early). Sometime in Late February I will make a trek to dark skies, when Lulin is high in the sky at 10pm. Anyway, caught a few images as well...

(http://www.tonightssky.org/020709a.jpg)

on this second one I left the shutter open for a few minutes, and by luck caught an Iridium flare (I have tried to image these before with no luck)

(http://www.tonightssky.org/020709b.jpg)

If I had been in dark skies im sure it would have looked great, since it was totally easy to spot with my binos this time.  I'd say it was about a mag 6 to 6.5 (obviously Im inexpirenced though)

Good job Tyler!!. Those are very nice images. Lulin stands out very clearly on your image even within the intense moonlight. I'm amazed how high Scorpius is from your location compared with here! Nice iridium flare also. You had a very successful session!. I bet you will get great images from a dark location.

There are more naked eye reports arriving now. Looks like the comet is finally waking up.

Thanks for the photos, Tyler. I enjoyed watching at Lupus and Centaurus which are poorly visible from my latitude.  :)

The comet already rises at midnight, but it is best visible at 5AM, so I'll prefer to observe it in the morning and recommend you to do the same  ;)

Hi all, I observed Comet C/2007 N3 Lulin this morning at 6am in freezing conditions from my snow covered backgarden with my Celestron 15x70mm binoculars, about one degree to the west of the bright double star alpha librae. It was quite easy to pick up even in bright moonlight. I would estimate that the comet was about roughly 20 arcminutes in diameter, with a slight east-west 'bar' through the centre of the comet, however with no distingusable tail. It was certainly a greenish hue in colour, and using the magnitude 5.7 globular cluster M5 as a guide, I would estimate the comet's brightness at about magnitude 6.1, a little less bright than M5. Now I really earned my hot cup of tea this morning !!!

I have attached a shot of the scene with the following details:

Comet Lulin, Canon 400D 200mm L lens at f4, ISO 800, 40 seconds exposure.

www.flickr.com/photos/79652716@N00/3260228657/sizes/o/

Keith..

Hi Keith, thats a really nice image of Lulin. The east-west bar you mention is very obvious, and just a hint of a tail on the western side according to my eyes anyway. Well done!

Hi Keith, very nice image of comet Lulin near Alpha!. Lovely green colour to the coma with the white condensation very well defined. Can see an anti-tail no problem. Thanks very much for sharing it with us and keep us posted on any future images you get  :). Thanks also for your mag est and coma dia size...very useful info.

Good image Keith it must have been some sight in your binos.

jonathan

It was a pleasant sight in my binos alright, I'll try to keep with it this week, maybe i'll make it up out of bed before work some morning.....

Keith..

Don't bother for the next week, the Moon will be a serious nuisance until about the 16th when Lulin will be just North of Spica and the waning Moon will be somewhere around the border between Libra & Scorpio.

Hey guys, got my third glismpse of Lulin tonight, I thought maybe I saw it in the binos but I won't count that  :D Looked pretty decent in the scope for observing during full moon light. Got a couple images that it shows up on too. Maybe Ill post them after I get some sleep. Very impressive under the moon I thought. Can't wait to see it without moon interference for 14 days!!!

Sounds like the comet has really brightened. Post away Tyler  :). Hard to believe it's in Virgo already!. According to the BAA it should be visible before midnight by mid month.

Is it fading?! Recent estimates (Feb.12-13) vary between 6.0-6.8. Or maybe it is due to Moon interference. Anyway the comet doesn't seem to brighten.

No news from here. I am still clouded out since Jan.14 - and it is a month already  :-\ I never thought that February can be so bad...

It should be brightening. Those recent reports which place the comet at mag +6.3 or fainter are errors made by observers due to sky condition issues, aperture effect, and the Moon. The comet should be mag +6.0 or brighter now. Looking forward to checking it out on the next clear night.

Had a short clearance tonight, located Spica in the 10x50s and was amazed how easy it was to see Lulin as a large green haze in the same field to the E of the star. Comet looked very bright although unspectacular with regards to structure. I wasn't even dark adapted either. Only a sort glimpse but I suspect it should be an easy naked eye object from a dark sight. Guessing mag +5.8 or brighter.

Here's a link to an image I got at 02:00UT. This is a full single frame taken with the 50mm 1.8 and 10 seconds at f2 ISO1600. There was still quite a bit of haze about so I subtracted the orange glow from the street lights out front. It was an easy object in the 10x50 binos but I couldn't see it with the naked eye. I would tend to agree with the 5.8 estimate and it may even be brighter with the haze gone. If you look closely at the full image there is a hint of a tail pointing towards 7-o-clock position, this must be the anti-tail surely. The bright star below and right is Spica. Unfortunately I only got a few images as shortly after this the sky closed in again.
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=30m798g&s=5

That's a great image John. Good job taking advantage of that clearance. Lulin looks very bright and green in comparison to your last image, shows how much it has brightened between the two dates. I can see a slight elongation in the anti-solar direction. I wonder what the same lens would pick up on a good clear night with the comet on the meridian?. You might get both tails.  :). It stayed cloudy here for the rest of the night.

I've been following this thread with great interest and have enjoyed the various sightings reported.
Well I finally got his first view of the comet this morning. Being a slob, no venturing out in the cold and snow away from my house for me - just a short trip out to the back garden when the comet would be easy to find, having just passed about 3 degrees north of Spica.

I wasn't expecting to see the comet last night after looking at my local forecast. However when I got up at gone 3am I could see Spica through the window beckoning to me. Saturn and Regulus could be seen to the west of Spica, roughly indicating the path that Lulin would be taking over the next couple of weeks.

Anyway despite some intermittent cloud, out I went with my Tasco 10X50 binos. Tracked it down within seconds at "2 O'clock" from Spica (i.e. to the northwest of it). The magnitude was much as expected - however I was a little surprised at its size (for some reason I was expecting something smaller - don't ask me why,though). Anyway viewing the comet for the first time gave me the same thrill as an early morning session I had (IIRC) in the early hours of April 2002 when viewing (through the same binos) Ikeya-Zhang in the region of Cassiopeia.

I then decided to try a widefield shot of Spica and Lulin so quickly set up my AstroTrac camera platform (this platform has been a godsend to me, being so quick and lightweight to set up)! I've posted my initial result which is a stack of a couple of (cropped) images with a 135mm lens set at f4. I will process it later today to reduce the streaks of cloud which can be seen, remove the dust bunnies & also to try to enhance the comet. Let's hope that the cloud Gods smile on us when Lulin is in conjunctions with Saturn and Regulus over the coming two weeks!

(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b82/BigDipper/lulin1converta.jpg)

Nice, the anti-tail is really obvious and there is more than a hint of the ion tail too.

I've been clouded out since last Tuesday, in fact it's over two weeks since I got a reasonable look at the morning sky.

Andy, excellent visual report and image. I really enjoyed reading about your first visual obsv of Lulin and can identify with you about Ikeya-Zhang, which was a vivid memory for me, and remains to this day one of the nicest comets I have seen since Hale-Bopp. You have picked up the anti-tail and subtle gas tail extremely well. Best of luck with the later processing.

Seen the comet this morning also and it was great. Have to get a few of my very poor images of the camera first so will post later.

(http://i42.tinypic.com/2eq9ede.jpg)

Observed comet Lulin before dawn this morning between 05.30 - 06.35 UT. I found it in an instant to the R of centre on an imaginary line between Spica and 51 Virginis using 10x50mm binoculars. The comet was very bright and large with a coma 20' in diameter. The last quarter Moon was visible in Scorpius and despite the lunar glare I was very impressed to see the comet easily with the naked eye with even a hint of green colour. Furthermore I could also see the central condensation without optical aid. I spent alot of time just admiring the comet with direct vision then turned the 8.5" F/7 reflector in its direction. In the wide angle eyepiece the coma was large, circular, and vivid green in colour with a soft edge (D.C: 5).  An intense white-coloured central condensation was visible with large diameter. Embedded at centre was a well defined active-looking false nucleus. I seen what I took to be three active jets in the form of fine linear streaks pointing out from the centre for some distance in several directions.

Both tails were faint with the anti-tail being the least impressive, or at least it looked that way in weak moonlight. The ion tail was 1 degree long and very broad with intricate structure. The tail itself looked to be split into two linear components with a dark division at centre. Covering over both segments was an impressive array of long streamers which where as long as the tail itself. With averted vision I thought there was something else projecting out from the ion tail at an angle which was not in line with the Sun, perhaps a disturbance from the solar wind or disconnection event?.  I began to make a sketch but soon haze and the glow from morning twilight washed the tails from the sky. Before this observation I had considered this comet to be a dud but after this session I'm really reconsidering my impression of it.  From a dark country site Lulin should be an easy naked eye object, a view which can only get better at close Earth approach. During the period of observation I noticed sigificant motion of the comet which was impressive. This is all the more notable when there's a bright field star near the coma. My 'guesstimate' is that Lulin may already be mag +5.6 or even brighter. Time will tell. I also watched the Moon occult the naked eys star 6 (Phi) Scorpii.

Just had my mag estimate confirmed by another observer on spaceweather.com..nice to get the confirmation.

Great reports and images folks.


jonathan.

Great images. Hope to have some clear skies in the morning for once. Hope to get an image or two.

Thanks guys.

Richard, best of luck tonight, I hope it clears for you. Completely overcast here so I will have to wait for another night.

I'm happy to know that a thread I started about Ikya-Zhang on another forum remains, to this day, the longest thread on that forum some seven years later. I find that sharing observing experiences with others on the net can be a big boost to a persons morale!



Cheers Martin. Processing is not my forte unfortunately. I played around with the image for the best part of two hours this evening til I was sick of it but only managed to subdue the uneven background at the expense of comet detail. Not to worry. Actually seeing it was definitely the major prize from last night, as it was with Ikeya-Zhang!

Very much enjoyed reading your very detailed report as well Martin. At what time did you take your shot BTW? When I looked at Lulin it appeared to be slightly more towards the right of the 'line' between Spica and 51 Virginis so my viewing it must have been slightly later than when your excellent image was take.. This comet is certainly a fast mover!


Yes, I found out about this purely by chance as I see that it wasn't publicised in the source I use to fill in the 'Events' section here. By the time the occultation was under way, the sky had already completely clouded over (and still is as I type this). However my first-ever sighting of Lulin more than made up for it. I hope we are equally lucky when Lulin passes by Saturn and Regulus. (http://www.mackenzie1963.freeserve.co.uk/Smilies/Angry3_files/crossfingers.gif)

Hi everybody. Now I have joined to other observers - have seen N3 Lulin last night for the first time!  :D

The weather was a problem since December, but last night (Feb.17/18) was completely clear! - since 5PM yesterday till 9AM today.
You can see the forecast:
http://i43.tinypic.com/2n6utty.jpg

I had an observing session at 18-22 hours yesterday, before comet rise. Then I waited for the comet will reach ~15^o altitude. I observed it between 00:40-03:00 - not simply seen the one, I observed it as much thoroughly as it was possible within a short time (I needed to get up today at 7AM).
Only emotions are in this post (not a report), because I've just came home from the university, and am very sleepy now. I will make the report later (maybe today), upload it on my site & elsewhere including here.

Martin, these words have much encouraged me!  :)
I have seen a FN, it was like a faint star near magnitude limit (~11m), but it was barely visible and I thought it was my visual mistake. Now I'm sure that it was the one.

P.S. At the moment it is overcast here, but it will be possibly clear today near midnight, and the next night (Thu/Fri) will be clear again!  :) So at least one more observation this week is guaranteed... let the hot season start!  :D

Congrats Roman! im glad you finally got a peek  ;)

I think I'll have clear skies tonight, It's nice that it rises at 11pm here now :)

Congratulations!

Been cloudy for a week here ... I wish I could see it again ... forecast is better for Thursday/Friday.

A copy of my report:

C/2007N3 (Lulin):
2009 Feb.17.98 UT: m1=6.0, dia.=&12', DC=4, no tail, 7.6cm reflector (35x)
[altitude 30*, low-level light pollution, transparent sky, Bortle class 5/6]
-------- --------- --------- --------
* ICQ format*
  2007N3 2009 02 17.98 S 6.0 TK 7.6L 9 35 &12 4 ICQ XX KOSXX
------- --------- --------- ---------
Comet was observed between 00:40-03:00 (GMT+2) on Feb.17/18:
- in 76/700mm reflector: at magnifications 35x and 56x, clearly visible. ML=11.1m. Large moderately diffuse coma, CC is visible (dia. ~2'), faint starlike FN (~11m) was barely visible inside CC. No tails seen. Comet moved 20' NW during the observing session.

- in 22x32 binoculars: visible, but it is slightly faint. CC also noticeable. No tails seen.
- No naked eye observations

- Observing conditions: -7*C, clear, transparent sky, low-level light pollution, NELM ~5.3


I will scan the sketches on weekend, also I have made some images of comet, I will post them if the processed image will be good enough

Great report Roman. I look forward to your sketch and images!

tonight is going to clear, too bad I have to be up early, otherwise I'd make the trip, but I guess that'll have to wait another week or so. But I think Im going to try and master my barndoor tracker tonight, to prepare.  :)

Good Luck to everyone Tonight and clear skies

Well done Roman on catching Lulin by the tail if you will excuse the expression!. Great to hear you have bagged the comet and added it to your growling collection. Enjoyed the report, and the enthusiasm also  :). I know you have been getting it bad with cloudy weather for a long time so I'm glad you got a break. Hopefully it will stay that away for now on.

Great job Dennis, going by your image the coma seems to extend for quite a large diameter there!, the brilliant central condensation is very distinct.

That's a good success from everyone on here. Keep at it.  :)

Hi Andy, in response to your last post (sorry about the delay) the image was taken at 06.00 UT so it sure is a fast mover indeed. Even by looking at the finder chart tonight I'm amazed where Lulin is in comparison to our previous observation.

I would love to read that long thread on comet Ikeya-Zhang!, I'm glad someone else agrees with me because many don't. C/2002 C1 was a beautiful comet, I was lucky to see it from a very dark sky at my old home and could see both tails extending up from the W horizon for a long distance. I think I saw the ion tail for 7 degrees or more without optical aid and an off-set dust tail too which even looked slightly curved at one stage. To me, Ikeya-Zhang looked like what I understand a REAL comet to look like. I will never forget it. That one was special to me because I came very close to discovering it myself, but just missed it by a few degrees while comet hunting on the night of it's discovery. Then, it was a 9th mag haze in Cetus, I followed it for a few days then got clouded out during the period in which it was rapidly brightening. Then came a fine clear evening, I turned the 8" S.Cass in that direction expecting to see a brighter hazy patch but what I saw instead was a completely transformed comet with intense white  dust tail...I swear I almost fell off my chair in shock, then I began saying expletives out loud and had to calm myself. I felt like getting the neighbours out lol...so that one was special.

Another comet which got under-rated was C/2002 F1 Utsunomiya during late April 2002, probably because it was in bright twilight and many missed it. That comet was bright with a very long dust tail. Another one which I shall not forget was C/2004 F4 Bradfield in April 2004 in morning twilight, that was a stunner with a 7 degree dust tail and the only anti-tail I have ever seen, other than Lulin.

http://www.nightskyhunter.com/Comet%2021-21.html

http://www.nightskyhunter.com/Comet%2022-22.html

http://www.nightskyhunter.com/Comet%207-7.html

I'm still hoping we will get another great comet in the near future...counting down the days.  :)

Thanks guys. 
Last night was cloudy with only little clearance at ~23h, a bit of snow arrived on the ground after the nighttime snowfall.
But it must be clear again today after midnight!  :)

You must see this: http://www.astronomy.ru/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=29295.0;attach=168657;image
Another photo of comet N3 Lulin by Gennadiy Borisov. (16x120sec exposure)
He is flooding the forums with his own images since January. I am amazed with his work.  :)

I have updated my page (http://www.poltava-astro.narod.ru/comets_eng.html) of bright comets.

Now the sky cleared... :)

Wow! - beautiful image!!. Look at the background galaxies  :o. Congrats to him for such a great image.

Clear here, just waiting for the comet to get higher and away from the muck.

Woohoo - clear(ish) sky with variable high cloud but I did manage to get an imaging run on Lulin
(http://www.bbhvig.uklinux.net/C2007N3-090220.jpg)
Canon 40D, 300mm f/2.8, 10 x 2 mins, ISO 800
20 Feb 2009 0220 - 0300 UT
Stacked using Deep Sky Stacker special comet mode

The antitail is very clear but the ion tail(s) which are faintly visible in binoculars (to a length of approx. 4 degrees) have not registered.
Comet just visible to naked eye, estimated magnitude 5.
Inner coma strongly condensed but no stellar nucleus visible in 8" SCT x133

Edit: Just for reference: An Astronomik CLS (anti pollution) clip filter was used. The image is uncropped, the field coverage is approx. 4.3 by 2.9 degrees (which shows the size of the comet and gives an indication of its speed of motion). North is up. The camera was on an Astrotrac driven mounting; no guiding corrections.

Clear here too  ;D and I barrowed the 300mm lens  8)

Hah! At last. Woke up at 0430 and saw the sky was clearish. Threw some clothes on and grabbed the camera took this wide shot (#2 is a crop) - guessed the position and seem to have got it spot on!

(http://paulni.co.uk/images/lullin090220.jpg)

(http://paulni.co.uk/images/lullin0902202.jpg)

Cropped and processed....

(http://paulni.co.uk/images/lullin0902203.jpg)

Sony A700, 50mm f1.7 lens 10secs f2.5 ISO 1600 RAW
Processed with PSE5 and (last shot only) Neat Image 6 plugin.

Mine's not that heavy (except on the pocket) ;D

Brian, your image is great!
Paul, I more like the uncropped one - where the comet is together with gamma Virginis
 :)

I observed it for the second time last night (Feb.19/20). Much worse than the first time - it is because of Cirrus clouds presence  :(
Nevertheless it was a good observation (comparatively to nothing  ;D ) - I had clearly seen the comet, even made some unsure estimates.

The sky cleared at ~11PM. I observed comet between 00:05-01:00 EET, during all that time thin Cirrus were present, their amount increased closer to 1AM, so I finished earlier. I didn't try to observe again later in the night because I had a horrible lack of time.  :(

Very easy to find in 2.5^o SW from gamma Virginis. ML varied between 9-10.2m due to passing strips of Cirrus clouds
Comet was faint in binoculars (22x32), but the brightening towards center was visible.
In telescope (at 35x) it was nearly the same as 2 nights ago, but fewer details (due to worse conditions), maybe a bit bigger dia. (?). The estimates are unsure: m1~5.8, DC~3/, dia.~16', no tails visible.

P.S. Today is a very sunny day (first since early Jan.) and it is warm (+4C) - it feels like spring  :D
But that is a false feeling - according to the forecast the sky will become cloudy today at ~17h, and next five days will be moderately cold with snow & overcast skies... (missing the Feb.24's conjunction)

Good images guy's. Got some myself but as I went to bad at about 4.30 they are still in the camera. Comet seen with the naked eye for the first time as an obvious hazy patch. Was actually talking to Martin at the time so we seen it together.Will have a look at the images in a while when I get some lunch, but can already see the anti-tail on the camera screen.

Hi Guys,

Well I'm after having a great time reading all your reports on Comet Lulin, also some of your images are outstanding . I myself saw Lulin last night for the first time. Between the moon & the weather last night cleared up lovely it was very easy to locate in Virgo. I'll try have a go at imaging it tonight if the weather plays ball. Let's hope it's clear when she's close to Saturn.

Carl.

Guys, I really enjoyed reading all those great observing reports and images from last night. It's great to see such a wealth of success with this comet. Brian, that's a great image you got. Carl, looking forward to your image, I hope you get it clear to capture both Lulin and Saturn which should be a cracker for the collection  :). Had a great night with the comet also. Sleep deprivation is really getting to me now but to quote a line from the movie 'Roadhouse'....''I'll get all the sleep I need when I'm dead''. This is copied from my site...

(http://i42.tinypic.com/oha93.jpg)

The night of February 19/20th 2009 provided me with my best view of C/2007 N3 Lulin to date, simply because it stayed clear for much of the night. I was actually observing this comet on and off at regular intervals for six hours and by the time the session ended before dawn I was well and truly ready for a warm bed. The night was clear, dark, and calm. However, the most horrible frost in a long time stayed with me throughout the night and made observing not only challenging but extremely uncomfortable. Despite being suitably clothed I was physically shivering to the extent that my hands and legs moved up and down on their own. I could see the comet rise above the horizon murk during the late evening but the best view took place between 00.00 and 01.30 UT. At that time I was chatting over the phone with local astronomer John McConnell and together we observed the comet from our own back gardens at the same time which was fantastic because we could confirm what we were seeing, and exchange our thoughts and impressions of the comet at the same time. It's great to be able to share a bright comet with someone else who is just as fascinated by these visitors as much as I am.

I was using 10x50mm binos and had the camera set-up. John had done likewise so we observed and photographed the comet at our leisure while occasionally remarking on other things like Saturn and any Iridium flares or meteors which briefly interrupted the serenity of the sky. The real highlight came when we both observed Lulin at the same time quite easily with the naked eye!. Even while casting a casual glance with the dark adapted eye towards Virgo you could see a large fuzzy patch of light below the naked eye star Porrima. The comet was a few degrees to the S of this star and shared this relatively blank area with a few others stars near the limit of vision. I could detect a subtle green colour and even the central condensation (CC) without optical aid. We could even see the comet with direct vision with ease. In the binoculars the coma was a beautiful object sporting a strange and vibrant green colour with a glorious white CC which looked like a bright star. It was difficult to describe the silent beauty of that glorious comet perched against a background of dark sky complimented by a scattering of stars. With the binos shaking in my shivering hands other features soon popped into view. A long faint ion tail and a much brighter anti-tail which took up a large portion of the 5 degree FOV. Based on the naked eye view I would estimate the comet at mag +5.3, however I'm being conservative because I still feel it could be brighter than this.

Later, during the coldest period of the night I could see the comet sitting proudly on the meridian and at it's highest point in the sky directly S. Lulin, Spica, Saturn, and the Beehive cluster made for a splendid naked eye sight. I then turned the 8.5" F/7 reflector on the comet and observed for a long time. This was when I noted that aperture effect was really playing a large role on the visual profile of this comet. In the SWA 32mm eyepiece the ion tail was extremely faint, really just a stump of faint grey light which I could only detect extending for 25' in the scope. I was convinced that after a recent disconnection event that I was actually witnessing a new ion tail unfurling from the coma to replace the old one which was probably some distance 'down wind'. The anti-tail however was much brighter with a well defined edge and seemed more substantial in profile. I could track it for at least 1 degree before it blended in with the sky. The coma was a huge elliptical fuzzy patch enveloping an intense CC with a bright star-like false nucleus which was very easy to see. The above sketch made at 04.36 UT shows the view in the eyepiece at that time. Eventually the bitter temp and recent lack of sleep took their tole so I decided to end the session at 05.30 UT. It was a great night, and currently my best memory of comet Lulin to date.

(http://i44.tinypic.com/5u1qvt.jpg)

Great report, Martin!  :) I don't trust that you had bitter frosts there in N.Ireland, but an all-night session (ok, maybe half-night) is a hard work...

One part of me is very happy that 5 overcast days will follow since tonight. Sleeping only 4-5 hours on each day wasn't much good for me.

Great images and report Martin. Still haven't had the pleasure of viewing Lulin as of yet, and it doesn't look good for the next week. Great work on your part.

Gennadiy Borisov keeps on posting images to Astronomy.ru forum, and it is impossible to me not to post the links...
http://www.astronomy.ru/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=29295.0;attach=168847;image
http://www.astronomy.ru/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=29295.0;attach=168851;image
just tell me that the tails could get better ::)

Ah, now, that first one shows about what I could "see" in bins last night, but much more clearly - I was sure there were multiple ion tails but I could not see them by direct vision, sweeping across where the tails should be gave an impression. I did hope that my images might show something but I obviously need a darker / more transparent sky.

Thanks for posting those links Roman. The images are amazing and they make me feel easier because the first one matches what I saw through the binos too, the second matches the scope view.

Check out page 9 of the SW.com gallery...

http://www.spaceweather.com/comets/gallery_lulin_page9.htm

Thanks for the comments guys about the report. Just woke up after a much needed cat nap  :). Richard, I hope the weather is kind to you soon. Lulin would look great captured above those tall trees in Oregon!

Well, I have to get out with my 10-22 (Jessops have my 28mm f2.8 under guarantee ,won't focus at infinity). I've been looking at the settings on various photos and wonder if with Dennis's photo, 20 secs. at ISO 1600 is too long re. noise/pixelation - I see Paul's 0430 photo on the last page  too, also has 1600 ISO   but half the time and no noise. Brian's got 800ISO. also 10 secs. I would try different  shutter times  and maybe ISO's but I wouldn't see the result in the LCD I wouldn't think.
Is ISO  1600 at 20 secs. too long ?

depends on your light pollution John.

I made observation #4 last night in a nasty wind, only observed it for a few minutes, I did note that it IS now visible with my binoculars. did get a few images, but they turned out bad. Lets all hope we have clear skies on the 24th!

Hi Lads,

Well the weather did it again I waited up till 5 this morning  I could not get a glimpse of the comet. Weather is looking bad for tonight too. ::) ::)

Carl.

Cheers Tyler.  We have clear skies atm but not tomorrow/monday. Just look at this lot en-route.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/satpics/latest_VIS.html

Well, better late than never! I was delayed somewhat in uploading this image taken at 02:33UT on the 20th because of an interesting fact uncovered by comet expert Gary W Kronk. On this same morning he was imaging Lulin from his home in Illinois, United States but exactly seven hours after my image was taken. He discovered that the coma of the comet passed directly over the asteroid 29 Amphitrite at mag 9.9. Gary actually marked the asteroid on my image below which is a crop from a wider field. Camera was clock driven and the exposure was 48 seconds at f3.2 50mm 1.8 lens. Late last night I found a further twist, 29 Amphitrite was the only asteroid discovered by Albert Marth, a German astronomer who at one time worked at Markree Castle Observatory in Co.Sligo! The asteroid was discovered on March 1st 1854 when he was working at George Bishop's observatory in London, interesting or not!
(http://i40.tinypic.com/1y1wms.jpg)

Very interesting .... I see it's on my image too (ten times!) Obviously it just looks like any one of a zillion other mag 10 stars.

I see that Brian.........pity you didn't know that at the time though!

Nice one John!!. An asteroid and comet on the same image is really something special.  :)

Seen comet Lulin again last night through gaps in the cloud with the naked eye without using optical aid first. It looked very bright with an obvious green colour and condensation. It was located extremely close to a bright star which looked to have been within the coma itself. Comet looks near mag +5.0 to me. Sky was incredible, clean, and BLACK. Best I've seen in a long time. Unfortuntately it never cleared after this for the rest of night.

Hi Lads,

Martin saw the comet to last night for a little while. I have to agree with you the sky was fabulous So dark and transparency was excellent  the best I've seen in ages. Still no luck imaging Lulin  due to clouds but I'll try again tonight.

Carl.

Hi Carl, I'm glad you confirmed the quality of that black sky last night. Good luck tonight for round 2, I think we may catch this comet in the gaps. Good luck to you.  :)

This is the only image I got last night before the gap closed. It shows how black and clean the night sky was. Those clouds on the image are racing in from the W (R). Lulin can barely be seen so I marked it on this 28mm wide angle shot. The comet looks smaller and more compact that usual because it's near a bright field star. Not a great image by an means but it was all I could get under the conditions.

(http://i43.tinypic.com/v7rv2e.jpg)

Hi Martin,

 Very Nice capture I could not get over the amount of stars in the sky last night. It would be great  to get one Moonless cloudless free night in this country for a change. :'(

Carl.

Hey John, 29 Amphitrite appears in my shot too! I had no idea it was there!

Have scanned my sketches today...

Feb.17/18
telescope at 35x
(http://i42.tinypic.com/riuouq.jpg)
binocular view
(http://i39.tinypic.com/inaa9x.jpg)

Feb.19/20
telescope at 35x
(http://i39.tinypic.com/15wym8n.jpg)

I will upload my observations tonight (here (http://www.poltava-astro.narod.ru/archives/comets/c2007n3_obsmy_eng.htm)).

Good job Roman. I like the way you showed the comet's motion on the sketch.

Got another look at Lulin tonight in the regular clear gaps. It just about shares the 10x50mm bino field with Saturn. Looking good.

Lucky you.  I have an overcast sky again - and possibly for all next week...  :(
I somehow missed your image of comet & Amphitrite on page #12 - well done!!! :) I have found this conjunction in my planetarium software more than a month ago, so Gary Kronk is not the first one.  ;D But I thought there is not much interest in it - the closest conjunction occured in the daytime here, and the 10mag is not reachable with my camera

Just climbing out of the clouds and LP tonight, here's Lulin with a very visible tail racing towards Saturn...

(http://paulni.co.uk/images/lulin090222.jpg)

Very nice shot Paul certainly a tail there too. Roman - always nice to see sketches. Thanks for posting.

very nice image paul! what are the specs? if you wouldn't mind  ;D it wasn't tracked was it?

Im going to finally climb out of LP myself on monday or tuesday, depending on which day is clear. then again on friday (this time in an even darker area)

Thanks guys. Tyler, no tracking - I have dislocated a vertebra so no carrying mounts up the garden at the moment! It's just camera on tripod - Sony A700, 50mm f1.7 lens, 5 x 10secs f2.5 ISO 1600 stacked in DSS with 5 darks, curves adjusted in DSS and very slight noise reduction in Neat Image.

Yeouch!

Still, I think I'd trade a dislocated vertebra for clear skies - only one night in the last fortnight which was even partially clear, and that had poor transparency.

Paul, that's a mighty fine looking image of the comet. Love the pastel quality to the scene and that glorious anti-tail.  :). Sorry to hear about your back, hope it recovers soon.

Roman, I think you might have made a mistake about page 12?, that was John who caught the image of asteroid and comet together - not me unfortunately  :). Keeping secrets from us are?  ;D, If you knew about it months ago you should have said something about it because there are many who would be interested in this sort of thing and would loved to have had an advanced warning. I bet alot of people have it on their images and don't even know about it yet  :), ah well...there might be a few more encounters yet.

A brief but large gap opened during the early morning hours. Lulin was a vivid naked eye object with large green coma and condensation. Easily mag +5.0 but again, it could brighter that this. Gaps where too short-lived though for a decent look. I have a better feeling about tonight and Tues for a better sky.

Check out these three impressive comet Lulin animations below made by comet photographer Gustavo Muler. Click on the link and let it upload and watch the comet, complete with two tails, move rapidly across the back ground stars while satellites zip past. A stunning sight!. The third link is a larger file and shows a violent disturbance in the ion tail due to a recent impact by the solar wind. Congratulations to Gustavo for getting such wonderful animations.

http://astrosurf.com/nazaret/images/cometas/C2007N3/C2007N3-09021-J47.gif

http://astrosurf.com/nazaret/images/cometas/C2007N3/C2007N3-09021-J47a.gif

http://comete.uai.it/comete/C2007N3_090222_anim.gif

I see that Paul......well caught!

Nice image Paul......I got a look at it last night for all of about 5 seconds, it was clearly visible to the naked eye. No chance of an image.

Martin those animations are awesome. I like the trails in the first one zipping across the image. My favourite has to be the third which has some excellent comet detail.

Solid blanket of cloud here in Oxford all day so I'm not at all optimistic about tonight..........but we shall see...........

Nice image, Paul  :)

Oops, I see now that was John's image! It's my fault - I was reading 1 page per second very fast and it was late night...  ;)

OK, no secrets...  ;)
Feb.24 (4h.) - comet 2°10' SW away from Saturn (0.6m)      
Feb.26 - comet 0°25' E away from ρ Leo   
Feb.28 - comet 0°40' S away from α Leo   
Mar.5 - comet 0°35' SW away from δ Cnc   
Mar.6 - comet 1.2° S away from M44 (Praesepe)
Mar.7 - Moon (86%) 0°20' N away from comet      
Mar.17 - comet 0°40' SW away from δ Gem   
Apr.2 - Moon (51%) 5° NE away from comet
(no more bright asteroid encounters)

That last one is a beauty Andy isn't it  :). I'm not so optimistic either now because that same blanket is here but things can change later. Fingers crossed.

Thanks for the list Roman. I'm taking a fancy to that Regulus-Lulin encounter!

Wow! Check out this image by Philip Jones.

(http://i41.tinypic.com/30m624n.jpg)

:o That's not just fantastic... It is the best image!  :D

Unexpected clearance right now, but strong haze, NELM~ 4-4.5.
Have glimpsed a comet with binoculars (22x32) at 21:45 EET- very faint due to poor conditions.  'Guesstimate' 5.0~5.5m.
Now the comet is 2.5deg. S of Saturn and 1.2deg. NW of tau Leonis (5.1m).
I will go out with a telescope in a hour later, if the sky keeps clear...  ::)

yeah martin I seen that one too my jaw just dropped  :o

Clear skies for everyone tonight!!

Hi all, a bit of a rough effort here, but the low cloud has been flying over me all evening with the odd break, I manged to get a 5 minute clearnace and spotted Comet Lulin abot 2.5 degrees below Saturn. I estimate that lulin is at about mag 5.5.

Here is a rough and ready shot before the fog rolled in again.....

www.flickr.com/photos/79652716@N00/3304091833/sizes/o/

Keith.. :)

Keith, that's much better than the average "rough and ready", a pretty good shot as it happens! I've been keeping an eye out for the last couple of hours but it's still wall to wall here :( I'm hoping for a gap for the camera on static mount which is all I can carry at the moment!

Good luck all!

Good luck too Paul ! I suspect that it could be quite a wait, the low cloud seems endless now in Cavan, but hey, be at the ready...if you can stay awake long enough :D

Keith..

Well, the fortune smiled to me tonight!  :D
In the evening the sky was completely overcast, and there were almost no chances according to the forecast...
Cleared at 21h. (though strong haze left). I went outside at 22:30, and the sky conditions improved - the haze amount decreased to moderate and possible Cs clouds disappeared.
It was another sucessful observing session (#3). But it was a special one:
comet at the closest approach to Earth (0.41AU)
comet shared the same binocular FOV with Saturn (being 2.3deg apart)

The report will be done tomorrow...

Keith, thank you very much for this image!  :) The comet is exactly where I observed it a hour ago. I will keep that image on my PC together with sketches.  :)

Crystal clear black sky here for last 1.5 hours. I'm on a buzz...just in from the scope. The anti-tail in the telescope is absolutely breathtaking!!!. Looks like a huge green sword pointing towards the Sun. I'm away out again....best of luck everyone. If you have a scope then use it on that rare tail.  :o

Keith, that's an excellent image. It looks exactly like the view in the binos from an excelllent dark sky. I'm glad you got it clear. Lovely anti-tail.

Wow, Martin, where do you get them from? Solid greyout here. Getting really fed up with consistently cloudy sky.

I don't have a clue where I got that from Brian, it was pure 100% luck. It was clear from before 22.00 until 01.30 which was amazing. John checked the sat images and there was only one thin clear strip in the cloud blanket over N. Ireland like a stream, and it was directly over my area. Talk about luck. I hope we get to see it tonight. A forward scattering event might occur with the dust tail...fingers crossed everyone.

Last night's report:

C/2007N3 (Lulin):
2009 Feb.23.90 UT: m1=5.4, dia.=&13', DC=4/, no tails, 7.6cm reflector (35x)
[altitude 43*; intense light pollution, Bortle class 6; low transparency]

------------ --------- --------- ----
*ICQ format*
   2007N3  2009 02 23.90  S  5.4 TK  7.6L 9  35 &13    4/           ICQ
------------ --------- --------- ----

Observed between 22:35-00:05 (GMT+2) on Feb.23/24 night:
- in 76/700mm reflector: at magnification 35x, visible good. ML~10.2m. Large moderately diffuse coma, with distinct brightening towards center, central condensation ~2...3', faint starlike FN (~10m) inside. No tails seen. Comet moved 20' NW during the observing session.
- in 22x32 binoculars: visible good with averted vision, faint with direct vision. No tails seen. Comet shared the same FOV with Saturn (2.3deg. apart)
- No naked eye observations
- Observing conditions: -12*C, low transparency (haze, possible Cirrostartus clouds), moderate light pollution. NELM ~4.5.

It was the first time I have seen a comet & a planet together :D
The comet has now full rights to be added to my observing list, and it is my second brightest comet observed (after 17P).

P.S. Sky is clear at the moment. Going to observe it again. :)

Great images -what a sight but as with Brian, just a 'grey-out  here, still is.

(Sounds painful, Brian-dislocated vertebrae. ugh)

There are some great photos here. Awesome job guys...

As for me, this was my first attempt at taking pictures of the sky so I thought this was a perfect opportunity for me to shoot the comet.

Here is what I came up with....

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3552/3304814271_466801c114_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3299/3304814327_64941e7f78_o.jpg

Rest can be viewed here, http://www.flickr.com/photos/hondamanxxx/sets/72157614286624819/

Thanks

On February 23/24th I was very fortunate to have made my 10th observation of C/2007 N3 Lulin. The reason I was lucky was because the forecast was for overcast conditions over N. Ireland, and indeed it looked hopeless during the even with a solid blanket of stratus blocking the stars. During the late evening I took a cat nap then suddenly awoke with the comet in mind. I looked out the window and was shocked to see a clear sky. In the E was planet Saturn in Leo well placed above the local rooftops. I ran outside with the 10x50mm binos for a quick look incase it clouded over. This was the main night observers had been waiting for because Lulin was at its closest to Earth (38 million miles) and only 2 degrees below Saturn. The binos showed both very clearly in the same field with an anti-tail pointing away from the planet. The sky was getting better by the minute and soon it was 100% crystal clear with a black sky filled with brilliant stars. I set up my camera and took approx 30 images at different focal lengths and when content that I had a digital record of the event I then set-up the 8.5" F/7 reflector in the back garden in preparation for a serious look at this wonderful comet.

When full dark adaption set in I could see Lulin easily below Saturn as a large 5th mag elliptical haze much like a fainter version of Messier 44. Then with amazement, using averted vision, but just once, I could glimpse the anti-tail without optical aid as a slim line pointing away from the golden planet above. This was the first time I have ever seen this kind of tail with the naked eye. This set the mood for an unforgettable observing session. Over the next 1.5 hours I observed the comet in extreme detail making this the best view I've had to date. I was struck by just how much the comet had changed since I last observed it. It was obvious that this close Earth approach combined with a forward scattering/opposition effect had enhanced the magnitude of the main dust features. The coma was a huge green elliptical haze over 25' in dia and moderately condensed with a vivid white coloured central condensation. Lurking in the centre of this was a lovely bright star-like false nucleus which seemed to be exploding with activity. I was under the impression that the real nucleus, unseen and cocooned within those white mists, was a large object indeed. Faint field stars lurked within the green coma and a grouping of brighter stars could be seen near the coma's edge. This chance arrangement came in useful for gauging the comet's rapid motion. Within a few min's it was obvious that the comet was moving to the W and N as the comet-star angle gradually changed. This was very striking even in this low power 32mm 2" super wide angle eyepiece. It was amazing to think that this comet was moving more than sixty times faster than a bullet as it raced past planet Earth. One thought came to mind - thank goodness it didn't have our name on it - Lights out!.

The anti-tail was absolutely incredible. When I first seen it in the scope against such a dark sky back ground I felt an instant release of adrenaline due to the excitement of it's appearance. The tail blazed across the FOV for at least 1 degree to the SE. It was broad at the base where it emerged the coma then tapered to a point way beyond a bright field star which tried to compete for attention but failed miserably. The tail looked for all the world like a monstrous green blade or sword!. The eerie light along it's entire length was very intense, uniform, and complete with perfection sporting a sharp edge on either side. A film of material from the coma curved gracefully down from the elliptical head and blended in with the anti-tail's base. I watched with awe as this green phantom passed over back ground stars which further accentuated the comet's speed and size. That tail must have been huge!. Glancing further N to the opposite side of the coma I could just make out a strange looking ion tail pointing away from the Sun. Unlike the solar-pointing spike to the S, this tail was colourless, faint, and elusive so required good dark adaption and movement of the scope to bring out the details. This tail was not like it's brilliant brother, but instead seemed to 'jut' out from the coma at an awkward 45 degree angle to the NE. A closer look revealed a multitude of fine streamers forming a wedge-shaped enhancement. Taking in both these tails and the coma at the same time was a sight I will never forget. Guiding the scope two degrees above the comet I could see Saturn with it's near edge-on ring system and several of it's Moons which only added to the experience. What a memorable session I had!.

(http://i43.tinypic.com/v78fw0.jpg)

(http://i39.tinypic.com/5yg4z7.jpg)

(http://i43.tinypic.com/2cmxf0i.jpg)

(http://i40.tinypic.com/295s6ck.jpg)

Congatulations, Martin!  :) I can see familiar stars in your sketches - we observed the comet at the same time! (my sketches aren't scanned yet)

Now the clouds occupied all sky, the temperature is rising (min -10C) - it's a bad sign. Tonight's session is cancelled.

P.S. I searched for comet Lulin observations is Google - and the first result was this topic of our forum!!! Let's keep on observing!  :D

What a report Martin! I feel Like I was there (which is awesome since I didnt get to see it last night) great sketch and glad to see you picked the tail up in that second image!

I clouded out last night, I even awoke to a cloudy sky. At the moment the sky is clear, but some forecasts say mostly cloudy, some say partly cloudy. I just hope its clear when I go to my dark spot...It's show time here in about 4 hours!  :-\ - nervous- tonight could be perfect, or horrible lol its a warm 60F right now! lows tonight above freezing!

Glad you got to see it last night Roman!

I type this under yet another cloudy sky!  >:(

Roman - congratulations on getting to see it last night & for the report. Look forward to the sketches (there's something 'magical' about sketches which appeal to me)!

Welcome Eric. Been looking at your album. The 'Comet Lulin 2' (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3552/3304814271_5b7cd965bb.jpg?v=0) shot looks like a giant fireball breaking up. Like the Moon halo shot.

Tyler - fingers crossed for a clear night. (http://www.mackenzie1963.freeserve.co.uk/Smilies/Angry3_files/crossfingers.gif)

Martin - by far the best report & sketches on Lulin I have seen anywhere. Almost makes up for missing the conjunction with Saturn. Personally I prefer sketches with dark sky & grey/white detail than the reverse as obviously it resembles what you see at the eyepiece. The anti-tail in that sketch looks incredible! To notice its movement too must have been a real buzz.

well I left my house thinking I'd be in nice clear skies, but 30 minutes from departing a thin layer of clouds took over, and I was pissed! It was so thin that if just barely affected imaging/observing just enough to make me mad. None the less it was by FAR my best observation of the comet.

I could see the anti tail in the scope by moving it around, which was cool. I didn't notice any color, just white. spent the better part of an hour trying to image with a barndoor tracker I recently put together. I came out with reasonable images, not what I had hoped, but I least I caught the tail. This first one was on the scotch mount, 260 seconds (6 minutes) f/5.6 (obviously not a prime lens lol) ISO 400 at 55mm...only contrast/brightness edited

(http://www.tonightssky.org/images/022409a.jpg)

Then I just have one more here, a wide field 18mm image of the thin clouds that prevented perfect conditions.

(http://www.tonightssky.org/images/022409b.jpg)

I might put together a more detailed report later.

I'm actually suprised I got the scotch mount to work so well, I definitely need to try again soon. Maybe Friday night I might go to even Darker skies, if it's clear that is...

Thanks, Tyler and Andy  :)

To be more realistic, the backgound must be grey too, ugh  ;D  :-\

LOL at my site a bright orange/yellow sky would be more appropriate Roman!  ;D

Congratulations Tyler on getting a couple of images. Your own personal record of this once in a lifetime comet. Fingers crossed for Friday.

Hi E-Rock, welcome to the forum and thanks for joining in on the fun. I was looking through your image galleries and had a great time admiring all your dramatic captures of such a wide range of subjects. I really enjoyed the nature images and those of the varies cities at night. Great stuff. Your image of Lulin is very different which is always a good thing. Keep up the great photography and enjoy yourself on here.  :)

Roman, I'm also delighted you got another observation of the comet and successfully battled the local LP to catch it. Look forward to any reports or sketches you do. Thanks for the comment on my own attempts.

Andy, thanks very much for you nice comment!. I even got another look at it last night against all odds due to the weather. Gaps yawned open long enough to even bring out the scope. I think tonight could be a good time for some UK observers, maybe only Ireland/N. Ireland to see the comet. That's if the forecast is to be believed anyway.

Tyler, great stuff, your efforts of driving to a dark sky really paid off. There's no doubt that you caught a very good looking anti-tail there and it's extending for quite some distance too!. Nice tactic using b&w. I also really like the wide field image, the cloud structure makes it look very dramatic and so does the car trails below. Nice  :)

Now that Lulin is moving through Leo I'm sure there's a chance of the CCD guys, and even DSLR guys, to pick up some back ground galaxies with the comet at the same time. NGC and maybe Messier DSOs.

No less than you deserve, Martin. Well done.

Dramatic photos, Eric... Eric...E-Rock. Brilliant lol.



Tyler..that was very frustrating for you ,that's for sure. You have an arrow on Lulin-I think, how on earth (sorry no pun  intended lol) do you identify that amongst the background stars ? - I'm bewildered.

Martin - you seem to be saying that there's still hope for us with DSLR owners ?  For how long ? and  if we get clear skies where to look ?..in relation to the Plough.? Tbh it's not looking atall good here,we have a heavy overcast sky and I think it will remain so for a few days.

Andy - thanks I am definitely backing it up on the external hardrive  :D

Martin - Definitely did pay off, i wouldnt have been able to image the comets tail had I been in the city (much less view it through the scope) I was suprised how far the antitail showed up too! thanks

John - It was quite frustrating, but after sleeping over it, It wasnt that bad Lol. Oh its pretty easy, just view it in the bino's and look for a hazy thing near saturn lol. then pick it out on the image.

I put my full report on my homepage for anyone that want to read it. Its fairly lengthly but I don't think it's that boring ( or at least I hope  :P) http://tonightssky.org/

Hi John, good question. Find the Plough and turn your back on it. Look to the E-SE and you will see Leo rising. It's distinctive because it has a selection of stars in the shape of a backward question mark in the W (R) side of the constellation. The bottom star of this question mark is brighter than the others and is called Regulus (all naked eye stars). A brighter star to the far lower L of Regulus is planet Saturn which may look slightly orange or gold in colour. Scan that region of the sky between both Saturn and Regulus with your binos and look for a hazy smudge or patch of light, and that's your comet. If you can't find it just take a wide field exposure of that area, anywhere from 20 sec's upwards at a sensitive ISO and you should pick up the comet. If your not certain which object on the image is Lulin just post it up here or send it over to me and I will mark it for you. If you find it in the binos first then you will know exactly where to point the camera. I hope this helps John.

PS: after midnight the comet is well placed high in the S. Here's two finder charts from the 25th and 26th...

http://www.spaceweather.com/images2009/25feb09/skymap_north_lulin.gif?PHPSESSID=1mbfhtf4qnedl76jtgtfqosub3

http://www.spaceweather.com/images2009/26feb09/skymap_north_lulin.gif?PHPSESSID=1mbfhtf4qnedl76jtgtfqosub3

Here's a wide shot I got on the morning of the 20th which I totally forgot about.
(http://i42.tinypic.com/2rdydqs.jpg)

Hi Tyler. Great report there, you went to alot of effort to see this comet. Thanks also for the mention  :). Interesting that the green colour was not evident, must have been the sky conds. I fully agree with what you said, at a first glance it looks like nothing special and you wonder what all the fuss is about until you get dark adapted and see the anti-tail in its glory through a scope. No Hale-Bopp but certainly a beautiful and unusual looking comet. We have been quite lucky to get such wierd cosmic odd balls in recent years. First Holmes, now Lulin.

John, we posted at the same time. That's a nice one of Lulin in Virgo.

Here's two poor images taken last night in the gaps. At ISO1600 the images are extremely noisy.

(http://i42.tinypic.com/s5b57r.jpg)

(http://i43.tinypic.com/2n8915k.jpg)

Thanks Martin, yeah I figured it would look a little green, but it wasn't, maybe if in "darker skies" your image shows the color well Martin :)

Nice widefield there John

did you guys see the animation on spaceweather! oh gosh it's excellent!

this has been too fun, what are we going to do when it fades? lol

Thanks Tyler, watch for NLC'S ;D

Comet 22P/Kopff is supposed to be around mag. 9 in June & July, and it's quite reasonably placed in the Aquarius region.

What's wrong with Saturn?

The waxing crescent Moon is excellently placed (for northern temperate observers) in early Spring.

The next really exciting phenomena are Noctilucent Clouds from May onwards. I expect the forum to be an extremely busy place then. Before that is the Lyrid meteor shower then into the Aquarid and Perseid showers. Hopefully there will be something else unexpected before then. A great comet or bright Nova would be more than nice  :)

Just packed up after a break in the clouds at around 2.30am appeared and I could see Saturn & Regulus through the window. I decided that I was going to take a few exposures with my AstroTrac and then set it up & wasted valuable minutes taking a few short exposures to frame the comet before handing it over to the remote timer. To my dismay, the clear slot was short lived but, obviously as I'd set everything up, I decided to wait to see what happened. Over the next hour or so I was only given 'teasing glimpses' of Lulin before the sky thickened up fully again (and still is). Frustrating but you learn to accept that and acknowledge what's done is done & tomorrow is another day. Just looking around the sky & getting fleeting glimpses of the likes of the Plough, Arcturus, Spica - and briefly while setting up, Saturn & Regulus still gives me a level of the 'feel good factor'. Looking forward to its close encounter on Friday evening.

Cheers,Martin. No wonder I despaired. I've tried finding stars  straight off through the camera on the spotting scope. Nowhere near enough of a field of vision.I have 12 x 50's  bins. I really should have thought of that tbh. Still very cloudy here.

Still no sign of Lulin from here. Only had the one oppo, on Saturday night, and I was unable to locate it in my 15x70's, ok it was probably a bit low, but the clouds came in by 2300 and have been firmly emplaced ever since. Good catches everyone, some good shots of it.

Andy, I'm delighted you got a chance to catch it in the gaps. Your dedication paid off!

Here's a noisy snap from last night in the gaps...

(http://i40.tinypic.com/4uxhtc.jpg)

It look really bright when not near any "bright" stars Martin!

I forgot to mention that on my last observation, as I was scanning the sky, I panned from Northwest to southwest and as I panned, I picked up a meteor and followed it about 50-60 degrees across the sky brightening to roughly the 1st magnitude, it was pretty cool. Any ideas what it might have been? I think it came out of Cassiopeia or the eastern half of Perseus.

Oh Friday doesnt look good here now, looks like a couple inches of snow  >:(

I had about an hour clear this evening, so popped the 15x70's on the tripod, checked on HA, and pointed them at about the right place... Straight away, there's the comet. YES!!!!...

No clouds around, so I figured I'd try and image it. Dragged out the HEQ5 and scopes, used the RDF to point to the rough location, used the Konus and 17mm ep as a rough and ready finder scope (that's one helluva finder 23x80  :mrgreen: ) as I couldn't find it in the camera viewfinder. Tried a single sub of 2.5 minutes

(http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg118/johns_bucketofphotos/astro/special%20events/IMG_2450.jpg)

and a stack of 7 x 2.5 minutes
(http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg118/johns_bucketofphotos/astro/special%20events/comet-lulin-7x25mins-325mins.jpg)

Wow John, you must be really pleased with them! Martin thanks for the kind words. I also very much like your widefield shot which brings out the strong green colour very well.

I'm keeping tabs on the window by my computer as I can easily see Saturn/Regulus from here as the room is dark. Doesn't look promising though.......  :(

Fantastic images John!!!

John, well done on getting two excellent images of Lulin. Your dedication really paid off. I reckon, from what I've seen so far, that those are probably the best Lulin images taken from the UK to date.  ;) Gorgeous long anti-tail on both but the 1st is my fav due to the long tail and the obvious motion of the comet, evident by the trailing of the false nucleus contrasting with pin-point tracked stars on either side, which shows that Lulin is really moving at phenomenal speed - fantastic!. I read it's producing 800 gallons of water each sec.

Andy, thanks very much. Keep watching because I got a some very good clear gaps here a few times. Lulin was visible with the NE to the L of Regulus and looking great. I'm convinced over that last two nights that the comet has faded slightly. We are loosing the opposition effect now but the anti-tail could become much more interesting as the geometry changes.

LOL - spot on Martin!. Just come back in with my 10X50 binoculars as another cloud bank is now rolling in! I, too was thinking that it was looking slightly fainter than when I last saw it - so it's glad to read that you were thinking the same. Nevertheless it was well worth staying up to view as it heads towards Regulus. Tomorrow is the one I'm looking forward to when it passes about 40 arcminutes south of Regulus.  I will set up my AstroTrac then as well. Conditions for Oxford are looking favourable. Even Metcheck is forecasting less than 10% cloud cover after midnight (however, I won't count my chickens just yet).........



Steady! It'll only go to his head!  ;D ;D

Well this is the biggest thread on the forum  ;D

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  ;D

(http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg118/johns_bucketofphotos/astro/special%20events/lulinani.gif)

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.

(http://i41.tinypic.com/243m53c.jpg)

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

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

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. ;)
(http://i43.tinypic.com/a78r4.jpg)
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!  :)

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.

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

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.

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

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...................... (http://www.mackenzie1963.freeserve.co.uk/Smilies/Angry3_files/crossfingers.gif)

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

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

(http://www.spaceweather.com/comets/lulin/27feb09/Amir-H.-Abolfath1.jpg)

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

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

 ;D - we were not imagning things after all.

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!

got this image of lulin tonight my first attempt at it.
(http://i44.tinypic.com/md1bgj.jpg)

jonathan.

Many congratulations Jonathan. The greatest joy is probably in getting that first successful image, methinks!
Tonight's sky here in Oxford has to be the best of the year so far! No cloud or mist to speak of and no wind to ruin any images. I spent much time looking at Lulin tonight. The sky transparency was far better than it was the last time that I saw the comet - so if anything, Lulin looked slightly brighter tonight. I could also see a sign of the (anti?) tail and there was a slight hint of green to it as well after I was well dark adapted (well as dark adapted as you can get from the edge of a city)!

I did take a few shots but ditched them due to trailing caused by poor balance after Lulin had crossed the meridian. No matter, I'm sure there'll be enough pictures posted tomorrow.

Just been looking at M13 through my binoculars (Tasco 10x50). My main tripod is tied up with my AstroTrac so I am going to get a secondary one for the binos, as I am spending far more time observing these days, albeit with binoculars - and a steady tripod will enhance the view. Good to see Hercules so high up with Vega & Deneb following...................

..................A reminder that spring and summer is not all that far away now.  :)

OK - kettle boiled - so back out!....................

Nice image Johnathan  :) I can easily spot the comet and Leo looks nice.

Andy, Glad to hear you had (and still having) a nice observing session, and that you are doing it more often. I have also been bringing out the scope more often and use the binoculars more than ever. I am very excited about the summer and getting out in some warm tempertures! This comet really boosted my interest  ::) I'll definitely be going to dark skies more often in the summer, when I only have to worry about the clouds, not the temps  :D

Im clouded out tonight though.......winter sucks...

Cheers for the encouragement Tyler. I'm just taking some dark frames as the sky is getting lighter. Also ordered a new tripod for usage with my binoculars. The forecast I saw after this month's Sky at Night also sucks for most of the UK - so I thought I'd better make the most of tonight.

I see this month's calendar has now been posted so as I don't feel in the least tired, might as well make a start on that!  :)

Still having winter there, Tyler?  ;)
Here the winter doesn't want to give up. The sky stays bad enough and the snow is on the ground (5cm). I'm hoping now for one or two clear nights on Wed-Thu and finally - the spring in a week or two later.  ::)

Well caught Jonathan

haha yeah Roman, right now we still have about 9cm of snow on the ground, but that should be gone by friday with 60F temps. spring is only 19 days to go! things look better for the central plains this spring too, due to a drought in the southern plains, this could spell early chase days up here :) to early to know for sure though.

good luck to everyone tonight! even though the moon will interfere.

Hey Folks, I got home from a wedding at about 2am last night to find the skies clearing very nicely, so I decidied to stay up a little longer to catch Comet Lulin from 2.30-3am thrugh the camera lens. I had found it about 5 degrees west of Leo's brightest star Regulus, but I had found that even with dark skies, it was hard to see with the naked eye, maybe it's fading a lot already? Through my 9x60mm binoculars, I estimate the comet still near magnitude 5 visually, with again a slight hint of a 'tail' stretching east for about one quarter of a degree.

This shot I got is a stack of five 30 second exposures at f3.5 using a Canon 40D and a 200mm 'L' lens, tracked on board an 8" SCT. I had to use a high ISO of 1600 to bring out some detail in the tail, I do hope that you do not find it that objectionable. Over the course of a half-hour, I could clearly see the comet move against the background of stars !

P.S. Did any of you see Saturn lately, what a sight last night, It was my first time ever seeing the rings so flat, so strange - go and look !

www.flickr.com/photos/79652716@N00/3319903870/sizes/l/

Keith..

Well done Jonathan!!. Lovely wide field capture with Lulin at centre. Glad you had a good session and a good clear night. Keep shooting.

Andy, enjoyed reading your comments, get that brew down and get some more images  ;D, seriously, glad to hear you got a clear sky and are making the most of it before this severe cold front moves in.

Keith, cracker images!. Gorgeous coma and anti-tail. Definitely an image to be proud of and a special one for the collection.

Seen Lulin last night and again this evening. Visible with naked eye very faintly to the E of Messier 44, looks strange to see two hazy patches when one of them shouldn't be there. The comet has well and truly faded and become more diffuse (with naked eye & binos) compared to it's opposition enhancement. I make it at mag +5.3 or so, give or take a bit. For me the comet is a show-off in a telescope. Lovely green coma, blazing white condensation, and green anti-tail filling the FOV. What's even more impressive is its motion!. Haven't taken any images of it recently though.

Got this earlier this evening - lots of haze and LP stripped out of it to the deteriment of the anti-tail, but you can see Lulin has well passed regulus and is now on its way to a close enocunter with M44....

(http://paulni.co.uk/images/lulin090302.jpg)

Some very nice images there guys - thanks for sharing.

Paul, I don't think the forecast for the night of the 5th/6th is looking too good at the moment. Plus, as has already been mentioned, moonlight will seriously interfere.  :(

Martin - re making a brew. I have a folding chair which I often set up on the lawn when using my binoculars. Incorporated in the right arm of the chair is a small net which is designed to hold cups. So, rest assured, I didn't waste too much time.  ;D ;D

Here is a crop of a wider shot I got on the 2nd March at 02:12UT. I took about 30 images in the hope of getting something of the tail, but this is the only one I've had the chance to look at. If memory serves me right I think it was 48 seconds. Maybe a touch on the green side but this has held the tail.
(http://i40.tinypic.com/21myg3n.jpg)

Nice looking shots Paul and John :)

I hope we clear out soon. Havent had a clear night for weeks, I attempted to view the comet tonight, but (again) a thin layer of clouds dimmed even M44 down to being barely visible in binoculars! I hope its clear thursday night  :-\

I will second what Tyler said, very nice images Paul and John. Very good looking anti-tail on your crop John, you wouldn't think it was a crop either, the detail holds up very well  :)

I heard someone estimating Lulin at mag +6.0, I don't think it's that faint but it's not far off it.

Tyler, you are getting some bad cloudy weather lately. I hope your luck changes for the better very soon. The Moon will be a problem for now on though but that shouldn't mess with the telescopic view at all!  :)

Finally the cloud cover has got broken today, maybe there will be a bit of sky this evening, but the forecast tells me that next night (Thu/Fri) must be even better - possibly clear between 22-4 hours.

Well I got a little lucky last night and had a completely clear sky about 4 hours after sunset. I went outside and looked up near M44 for Lulin,  I couldn't fiind it with the binoculars, but when I brought the scope out I found it within 5 minutes. It was much more dim than I expected, it was more tough to find than 6 mag stars, so I'd estimate it to be +6.5 or so. I'm not sure how you guys measure with arc minutes and such, but on the 24th the comet filled the whole FOV in my eyepiece which is 1 degree I think, but tonight was barely detectable with 1/3 the size of my previous observation.

Could someone explain arc minutes? its 1/60th of a degree right? I don't know, sorry guys :-\

Hi Tyler, you are spot on about the arc min - 1/60th of a degree.

Lulin last night really was the shadow of its former self. I could see it with the naked eye before and after moonset but it was not jumping out of the sky at all. With any strong LP it would have been invisible. In the binos it looked much smaller, but still fairly large, however with the naked eye using averted vision it seemed much larger which is something which can't be seen in a scope. Good old 'aperture effect' again. It was almost in the same bino field as M44.

Glad you seen it Tyler. By the way, nice job starting the new comet observing section on your site. I was delighted to see your passion for comets shining through the text. By the sound of things you are really getting into comets in a big way...there is no better phenomena in my opinion  :). Maybe we will all get to see a great comet in the near future...fingers crossed. Who knows what will appear before the Summer - I'm ever the optimist.

The weather is teasing me today  :-\
After a cloudy morning\afternoon, it quickly cleared at ~17 hours. The sky became great and the sunset was beautiful (I will post some images later). But soonly, as it got dark at 18h. Sc/Ac clouds started to move quickly from S, so the sky became completely cloudy (with some gaps). I tried to observe lunar occultation at 19:15, have seen the star (HIP24252) in 5 minutes before an occultation, but then the thicker cloud arrived and I lost the star from view.
Also tried to find the comet with binoculars through gaps, once I have found delta Cancri, but 6-7m stars near the comet weren't visible (through the edge of upcoming cloud). Now it is getting worse. All my hopes are for the next night...

Let me tell how I measure the comet diameter in minutes.
  One way is to precisely know a FOV of each of yours eyepieces (see below). Next move the comet to the edge of the FOV and estimate its size or just mentally divide FOV into 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/10 etc and compare to the comet.
  Another way is more precise. Find two closest stars to the comet, imagine the comet between them (or maybe it is already there) and again, estimate the comet's size regarding to the distance between the stars (1/2, 1/3,...). It is even better to repeat the estimate with another pair of close stars, if possible. Next, measure the distance between stars in software and convert your "1/2" into arcminutes. I prefer to use this method, it usually gives me enough good quality (+/- 1'), if only the comet is steadily visible.


A bit offtopic: how to define precisely the FOV of an eyepiece?

If somebody knows a formula, please post it, it will be much useful

Defining it in experimental way is not such precise but easier in some cases. Tonight I observed the Moon (dia. 32.8') at 56x, and the FOV was ca. 3% bigger than the Moon diameter. So, it is 34' (+/- 1').
I used the same method to define binocular's FOV, it was less precise, of course.

Wow sounds like you had an epic sky last night Martin  :)
M44 was just in my FOV (8 degrees) with the binos, but I guess I observed it after you did. I had to use adverted vision to spot it in the binos and scope too. I would have to say the naked eye limiting mag here is not quite to 4  :-\ I couldnt see any stars in cancer. I hope this changes this summer, or fall, as I might be moving to a darker location  :) (I can only hope at this point)

Thanks Martin, for some reason after getting my website going I just wanted to document every observation I make, whether it be meteorological, astronomical or photographical  ;D  It gives me something to do on cloudy nights.

Roman, here is a good link I found (and my FOV is actually 1.25 degrees on my 25mm piece and .54 degrees on my 9mm piece- that I never use lol)

http://www.csgnetwork.com/telefov.html

Time how long it takes delta Orionis (the top star in the belt) to drift across the whole field through the centre with the drive not running. The eyepiece actual field of view is 1 minute of orc for every 4 seconds. (Delta Orionis is very very close to the celestial equator, so the correction term for declination can be ignored)

The Moon is a nuisance, but it's not a showstopper - here's Lulin and M44....

(http://paulni.co.uk/images/lulin0903051.jpg)

Well done, Paul!  :)
Nice to see the comet in the close proximity to M44. Today I was printing a sky chart of the same area... actually I planned to observe it at Poltava gravimetric observatory (where I was going today). We had here nice clear sky between 13-17 hours, but then thick As clouds covered the whole sky... So we were only sitting inside a room and looking through a window on the cloudy sky...

Paul, that's a beauty!, well done on catching it at such a photogenic place!

Observed Lulin through the scope tonight below M44 and despite moonlight and patchy cirrus cloud it looked great. There's a bright field star within the coma and I could trace the anti-tail for 1.5 degrees!. This comet is still putting on a show  :)

Well, I'm just in from the cold again

Comet Lulin is still putting on a very good show tonight (March 5th) as it passes very close to the starcluster Messier 44, the 'Beehive' cluster. I observed this comet and cluster together with my 9x60mm binoculars at 7.30pm, and the comet is still visible with the help of averted vision. I noticed that it certainly is not as bright as it was only a few short nights ago, and is now receeding from Earth quite fast. I estimate it's magnitude at 5.5, and you can see from the photo that the tail has shortened a little, although the strong moonlight does not help.

I could not see it naked eye, though I would say that it would have been visible if the moon had not been so close. Still, a lovely sight to see, as this does not come around very often.

Details: Canon 40D, 135mm 'L' lens at f4, 12x30seconds stacked exposures at ISO 800.

www.flickr.com/photos/79652716@N00/3331994124/sizes/o/

Keith..

Wonderfully atmospheric image Keith.  Really first class stuff!!

Beautiful image keith, great colour and anti-tail  :), which by the way looks very long even the Moonlight!

I moved your post over here to the official Lulin thread to keep track of things.

I have sent two reports to ICQ, this was the first time I'm sending it there. And I thought they didn't include my reports, but today I looked here (http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/icq/CometMags.html) and have seen my report too:  :)
They didn't include my Feb.23.90 report because J.J.Gonzalez observed directly at the same time. OK, I'll forgive it. ;)

P.S. The weather is still bad here, only one or two clear nights are possible on next week...

Good job Roman. Great to see comet observations being put to good use!  :)

Well thursday night was probably that last I will see of the Comet, I believe it will dim to where it won't be visible before the moon begins to rise AFTER dark. But I did get one image of it and M44, nothing spectacular by any means, because I couldn't get the tracker set up before the fog rolled in (to see more fog, check out the link below)

http://tonightssky.org/account030509.html

(http://www.tonightssky.org/images/030509i.jpg)

Well hey, we made it to 20 pages! bring on the next big thing!

I observed the comet on Mar.11 evening, between 21:25-22:35 (GMT+2).
Comet was in 4^oS of kappa Geminorum.
Observing conditions: 0*C, clear sky, NELM ~4.2. The full Moon (low in E) was a great nuissance.

- in 22x32 binoculars: not visible

- in 76/700mm reflector: at magnification 35x, at the first glimpse I didn't see it. But 20-30 minutes after, as my eye got dark adapted (I was hiding from the Moon inside a shelter) I could barely see the comet with direct vision and a bit better but still faint with averted vision. It wasn't enough good visible to make precise estimates. ML=10.7m. Diffuse coma, with slight brigtening towards center.

C/2007N3 (Lulin):
2009 Mar.11.85 UT: m1=6.8:, dia.=&7', DC=2?, no tails, 7.6cm reflector (35x)
[altitude 52*; strong moonlight interference]
(estimates are unsure)

------------ --------- --------- ----
*ICQ format*
   2007N3  2009 03 11.85  S  6.8:TK  7.6L 9  35 & 7    2            ICQ
------------ --------- --------- ----

Sketch
(http://www.poltava-astro.narod.ru/archives/comets/c2007n3_sketches/C2007N3_090311_sketch9.jpg)

(my comet observations page (http://www.poltava-astro.narod.ru/archives/comets/c2007n3_obsmy_eng.htm) updated)

Thanks for the latest Lulin images, visual obs and sketches Tyler and Roman.

The sky cleared late this evening leaving a sky like soup with poor trans and only the brighter stars visible. I took the scope out to find Lulin, I didn't know exactly where it was so I just did a search through Gemini and eventually picked it up at 23.00 UT. The coma was smaller and grey although still moderately condensed with a small bright condensation. No tail seen due to the trans. The comet looked nice in the same field as a bright star. Good to see Lulin again but it really is the shadow of its former self. Still, it looks nice and reminds me of C/1999 T1 McNaught without the tails.

Some detailed info about penumral eclipse of C/2007N3:

http://www.marmet.org/louis/lulin2009/index.html
(Louis Marmet)

Nobody observed it because he magnitude drop was... below 0.01m.  ;D

I have updated the light curve of C/2007N3
(http://www.poltava-astro.narod.ru/comets/c2007n3/c2007n3_lc1.GIF)

Comet is 1 magnitude brighter than predicted in MPC  :)

Tonight I had an absolutely unexpected little bit of clear skies, therefore I tried to see the comet but the results are quite disapponiting.
I'm just back from the observing session (22:50-23:35 EET). The sky was almost clear but the transparency was below average (haze, little fog), the comet was already lower (35*SW) and unfortunately in an area where the LP increased to moderate. ML 10.5. I had only a few glimpses of a 'ghost' (as Martin said), with averted vision, of course. Absolutely impossible to make any estimates, just only a 'guesstimate' of 7.5~8.0m. Then the clouds arrived in SW at 23:35.
Now I can only hope to get good clear skies and catch a comet while it will be higher...  :-\

Hi guys! Tonight I had a short but fantastic observing session!   8) Pity it's Monday now already and I have no time, I'll try to post a report next evening.

Good job Roman. Keep us updated when you get the chance. I'm hoping for clear skies this evening to try for the new comet again.

On Mar.22/23 night I had another (6th or 5th) observing session of this comet.

The sky had cleared only after 11PM, so the comet was already low above the horizon. But the sky transparency was surprisingly good: ~7-8/10, nothing like this since autumn. In my light polluted skies I could see many stars in Coma Berenices, the NELM was definitely above 5.5m, which was good enough (I never had 6.0m or more because of the city skies).

Actually, it wasn't a normal observing session, I was testing a 'magic goodie (http://astrophotoweather.smfforfree4.com/index.php/topic,1170.new.html#new)'.  8)
I saw the comet which surprised me alot!  :) (the comet was below 20^o altitude in moderate LP area).

Started at 23:45 EET (while messing up with new instrument), found the comet at ~00:05 EET, next it took much time to make a sketch (I'll post it later), finished at 01:00 EET. I should stay for more but needed to wake up early in the morning (ugh, the clear skies almost never occurs on weekend >:( )

It was just a 'faint fuzzie', absolutely different from one we had in February.
8 mag was faint enough to me (in not very good conditions), but with averted vision I seen it a bit more enchanced for a while. ML=10.5
Estimates:
C/2007N3 (Lulin): 2009 Mar.22.95 UT: m1=7.8:, dia.=&6', DC=2, no tails, 20x90B
[altitude 15*; moderate light pollution, Bortle class 5/6; good transparency]

------------ --------- --------- ----
*ICQ format*
   2007N3  2009 03 22.95  S  7.8:TK  9.0B 5  20 & 6    2            ICQ
------------ --------- --------- ----

A small offtopic: some meteor activity was present. Have seen one +3m meteor in Aur (at 23:21, flying N to S, unknown radiant: AVB, VIR, CUR,...?) and two telescopic meteors of 6-9m. The second one (9m) was the faintest meteor which I observed to the date, and it passed directly in front of the comet!  :D

Tried to look at the comet tonight at 20:00-20:25 EET (with a telescope).
The sky transparecy was poor and quickly decreased (ML~10.3 (max) ... down to 8m).
Glimpsed for a few seconds a barely visible (with averted vision) diffuse patch of light, though I even don't call it an observation.

(P.S. The pressure is falling here today, now it is 728mmHg rel = 736mmHg abs. I'm waiting for a snowfall tonight or tomorrow)

Great shots guys!!! Got a few myself one night, a bit late in posting but here you go...

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3623/3335092638_c7805aa015.jpg)

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3057/3335087662_f4b69c265a.jpg)

Camera: Nikon D300
Exposure: 10
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 2000

Superb, Steven!  :) It is faint already and you caught it!

P.S. Maybe there is no need to sign it in those shots... ::)

Thanks Roman, I have the text on the image as it was posted on my blog for people to know what they are looking at... Just haven't removed it... :D

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]

I haven't seen it since the last dark period but even then it was unimpressive. No doubt it's diffuse nature, fading mag, and the growing Moon will prevent detection for a while. I have my eye on Cardinal now.  :)

Comet N3 Lulin with an amazing deepsky background by David Kodama
http://www.eanet.com/kodama/astro/2009/0328/