Comet C/2007 N3 (Lulin) was discovered back in July 2007 by Ye Quanzhi and Lin Chi-Sheng from Lulin Observatory in Taiwan. Within the next few days this very same comet will make it’s closet approach to the Earth at just 0.41 astronomical units, the equivalent of 61 million kilometers. What the weather conditions will be like over Central Scotland at this time will be anyones’ guess, but I’m not going to hold out much hope for a clear sky.

However, as luck would have it, I was offered the opportunity to observe Lulin early this morning as the thick blanket of stratus that had been bearing down over Falkirk was slowly torn apart by high altitude wind shear. Finding the comet was a breeze and my Bresser 10×50 binoculars easily revealed the diffuse, ball like coma and the bright nucleus, but minus the tail or the anti tail.

After spending some time observing with the 10×50s, I decided to set up the 25×100s to see how much more detail I could pull from my light polluted skies. With direct vision the coma was still quite diffuse but I could easily discern the bright nucleus as well as a faint hint of the green hue that Lulin is emitting due to the gaseous out jetting of cyanogen and diatomic carbon. Averted vision caused the entire coma to brighten noticeably and revealed a tenuous glimpse of the dust tail trailing after the comet, but the ion tail was sadly still elusive. This really was a magnificent and thrilling sight and I took the opportunity to produce an isophote drawing which was used for reference when creating the final sketch above.

Unfortunately the clouds decided to quickly reclaim the sky and although my session only lasted around 30 minutes I am extremely glad that I got the chance to observe Lulin. I dare say that my sketch would have yielded far more detail had I made an observation from a dark sky site, but you work with what you’ve got. I’d love to spend another morning under the stars in the company of this comet, especially with better weather conditions, but the prospects of that happening look pretty slim. If you’ve not done so yet, I would highly recommend taking in a view of this stunning comet - you won’t be disappointed!

Tags: Bresser 10x50, C/2007 N3 Lulin, Strathspey 25x100, Weather

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 22nd, 2009 at 9:34 pm and is filed under Astro Art, Observing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.