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Comet Lulin Closest To Earth Tonight

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the get-out-your-telescopes dept.

William Robinson writes "Comet Lulin, formally known as C/2007 N3, which is on a visit to the inner solar system, will make its closest approach to earth tonight, about 38 million miles away. To the naked eye, the comet looks like a fuzzy patch of hazy light in the southeastern sky near Saturn, at the tip of Leo the Lion's hind leg. After this brief visit, Lulin will be heading back out to its kin in the Oort Cloud."

8 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. Nice antenostication there, guys by gardyloo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Too bad the /. posting is a day late.

    1. Re:Nice antenostication there, guys by gardyloo · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's my own word, to be pronounced just the same as antegnostication.

    2. Re:Nice antenostication there, guys by Andr+T. · · Score: 3, Informative

      You're right:

      http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?ID=dK07N030;orb=1;cov=0;log=0#orb

      The commet will still be near Earth, but it is already saying goodbye.

      --

      Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.

    3. Re:Nice antenostication there, guys by Andr+T. · · Score: 4, Informative

      http://www.astroclassifieds.com/gallery/data/526/Lulin.gif

      --

      Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.

    4. Re:Nice antenostication there, guys by pjt33 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Or maybe two days late. TFA contradicts itself on this clearly unimportant point, saying Tuesday in the main article and Monday in the image caption.

  2. Monday? by eyd · · Score: 2, Informative

    Uh, I believe this happened Monday night.

  3. Umm, *last* night guys by edremy · · Score: 5, Informative
    Went out to see it on a perfectly clear (if rather freezing) night last night. It's very easy to find if you know where to look (hint to self next time- make sure to check if your finder chart is EST or UTC :^), but it's not really naked eye visible.

    Even in my 8-inch scope it was pretty underwhelming. This was nowhere near a Comet Holmes type event, where it was obviously naked eye visible and glorious in any kind of optics. Flipped the scope around and went cluster hunting, so the night wasn't a wash :^).

    You can still see it tonight (and for the next week) if you want: bring binoculars at the minimum. A finder chart is at Sky and Telescope. Note that the chart on that page is for 9PM EST but that the detailed charts are UTC.

    --
    "Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
  4. Yes, it was last night. No, it doesn't matter. by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 2, Informative

    The comet did not disappear with a pop at 0000 GMT.

    It may have been a little brighter last night, but the difference was almost certainly imperceptible. It was still an extremely marginal naked-eye object -- you need really dark skies to see it without binoculars or a telescope.

    If you're a comet aficionado, it's kind of nice. With a good scope and well-trained eye, you might glimpse some color, and you might be able to make out the tails. If you're set up for astrophotography (with a tracking mount for your camera), you can get some good photos. But if that's the case, you probably didn't need Slashdot to tell you this was coming.