Truemors
is reporting from
Member
NP Rank:
NP Rank:
Green Comet Lulin, C/2007 N3, Visible to the Naked Eye
Share:
by Tina Kells | February 23, 2009 at 03:39 pm
1429 views | 3 Recommendations | 15 comments
A bright green comet C/2007 N3, called Lulin for the team that discovered it, will be visible to the naked eye tonight at aproximately 3am EST or midnight PST February 24, 2009. Lulin gets its green coloring from two gasses, cyanogen and diatomic carbon, that are being emitted from its surface as it hurls through space.
A comet is closing in on Earth and may be visible to the naked eye around 3 a.m. ET Tuesday.
When it's able to be seen, the Comet Lulin will be just 61 million kilometres away — about 160 times the distance between the Earth and the moon — which will be its closest approach to our planet, according to NASA.
The comet, whose official name is C/2007 N3, is expected to appear about a third of the way up the southern sky, a few degrees from Saturn in the constellation Leo. It is called "Lulin" after Lulin Observatory in Taiwan, where astronomers discovered it last year.
Photos
When it appears in the sky tonight Lulin will appear to have two tails, an optical illusion caused by its orientation to the Earth. This second tail, called an anti-tail, will be visible to the naked eye as well. NASA will be using its Swift satellite to track Lulin's movements through space.
The satellite includes probes that detect ultraviolet and X-ray radiation, which can be used to learn more about its chemistry, said a news release Friday from the Science and Technology Facilities Council in the United Kingdom, which is collaborating with NASA.
The satellite can detect hydroxyl molecules that are produced when water is broken down by ultraviolet light from the sun.
So far, the satellite's data show Lulin was shedding nearly 3,000 litres of water each second, or enough water to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool in less than 15 minutes, the release said.
Videos
What is NowPublic?
NowPublic lets people work together to cover news events around the world.
Crowd Power
fyngyrz
Glasgow, Montana, United Statesoceandesetoiles
Dayton, Ohio, United StatesTrois_Merlettes
Francemariusm
Palo Alto, California, United Statesakoutso
Westminster, Maryland, United States
sunicamarkovic
chicago, Illinois, United States
TDH
vancouver, Canada
quarkcsj
Honolulu, Hawaii, United Statesxn44
Spainmbscad
United Kingdomevanzxcv
United Statesriddler27
United Statesshadowdoc31
United Statesxurx0
SpainColin Terry
AustraliaMitchellIII
United Statesjjohnson449
United States
nightskies4us
Canadahirocun
Japanfbdiniz
Brazilsomecanadianskeptic
Canadajwheel_69
United Statesssprengel
United States
Unstrung Photo
Johnson City, Tennessee, United Statesxmitter
United States
Eric Chandler Photography
Sayreville, New Jersey, United Statesfububujp2008
JapanDiegokun
Chilepdautotech
United Statestboganl1nt2b
United StatesDaniel Chang
Hong Kongleek_meng_lee
Singaporeneutronman61
United StatesSardela
Brazilblakecaldwell
United Statesorenabah
United States
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (15)
at 18:57 on February 23rd, 2009
I am an Amateur Astronomer and a member of The RASC (Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Toronto Centre). This image was taken at Long Sault Conservation Area about an hour NE of Toronto. The photo was taken February 21 2009 12:45am. It was about -9c. I used a 300mm lens with my Canon XSi camera. This is my 4th Comet I have seen, but the first I have photographed.
Karsten
nightskies4us has contributed a photo to this story.
at 20:01 on February 23rd, 2009
Comet Lulin, February 21, 2009 with green coma, yellowish white dust tail in the left, and detailed blue ion tail in the right widely. The comet is passing very fast by the Earth, and it is visible near Saturn with naked eyes at dark site this week.
hirocun has contributed a photo to this story.
at 10:19 on February 24th, 2009
A cousin of mine told me all about Comet Lulin and thought it would be great to capture it! It was difficult to capture but I think that they came out great! It was very fun and interesting to read about and photograph.
Eric Chandler Photography has contributed a photo to this story.
at 10:48 on February 24th, 2009
Hi,all
This is me filming in Hong Kong to the comet, C/2007 N3 Comet Lulin, at 20090220 at midnight Hong Kong time in Hong Kong to see the countryside can be visual, very bright, hope that our family can see.
Bless everyone
Daniel
Daniel Chang has contributed a photo to this story.
at 10:51 on February 24th, 2009
This picture was taken last night in Royal Oak Michigan. You can see the comet very faintly just to the right of Saturn, which is the bright object near the center.
xmitter has contributed a photo to this story.
at 12:20 on February 24th, 2009
This was taken with a Nikon D60 with a 200mm lens from a fairly dark skies location. The streaking effect is due to the camera being on a stationary mount with a long exposure. Comet Lulin is on the right, Saturn is on the left. The picture is over contrasted to make the comet more visible.
Unstrung Photo has contributed a photo to this story.
at 14:07 on February 24th, 2009
This image was taken on February 21 2009 from Crandall Texas about 35 miles east of Dallas. It is a combined image of 20x120 sec. sub exposures taken with a SBIG ST 2000 single shot color camera on a William Optics ZenithStar 110mm refractor on a Losmandy G11 mount. The mount was guided on the background stars and not the comet, this is why the central bulge is slightly elongated. After using StarryNight planetarium software to locate the comet, it was easily visible to the naked eye. It was only about 11pm so the comet was still farely low in the eastern sky. Seeing that night was below average because of some gusty winds but I still had no problem making it out.
Clear skies
Tim Bogan
Crandall, TX
tboganl1nt2b has contributed a photo to this story.
at 14:31 on February 24th, 2009
This is an image of Comet Lulin taken on 2-21-09 from the Texas Hill Country. Not only can you see the classic tail, but also the anti-tail in "front" of the comet head.
This image was created using a stack of 8 x 2min exposures from a Nikon D-80 and 85mm lens mounted on an AstroTrac.
I also created an animation from images taken with my FSQ 106ED telescope that clearly shows large billowing plumes ejecting from the head. I will try to post this later...
neutronman61 has contributed a photo to this story.
at 14:33 on February 24th, 2009
In this shot, I use my old SLR camera Canon FT(35mm) with a 200mm lens / Fuji Filme ASA200 ProValue.
I did a crop on the photo and edit... the original photo is too much dark than this one that you see.
Well, I really dony know what is this in image, if is a Lunin at true, or its a flare... I dont know. But thats nice to see. (sorry my english)
Thanks.
Sardela has contributed a photo to this story.
at 14:38 on February 24th, 2009
Unfortunately I live in an area where the weather is mostly cloudy all the time. So, that was the only sight I had of comet Lulin, in February 20th, a friday.
This photo was taken under a regularly dark sky in the vicinity of Curitiba, southern Brazil. It was an easy target for naked eye.
fbdiniz has contributed a photo to this story.
at 15:27 on February 24th, 2009
I got this shot of Lulin from my back yard, Feb 18, 2009 (more info)
blakecaldwell has contributed a photo to this story.
at 16:29 on February 24th, 2009
At what time can it be seen tonight. it is 8:30 p.m. in Puerto Rico. Shoul I look east, north??
at 19:19 on February 24th, 2009
After what seemed like weeks of clouds and rain in California, I was finally able to see and image Comet Lulin. I had seen a lot of pictures on the web and none seemed to give the same view as I saw through my binoculars Saturday night. Lulin's apparent motion through the Solar System is very fast right now making long/multilple exposures difficult. This a single five minute shot taken through an 80mm f4.8 refractor telescope used basically as a lense for my Canon 40D digital camera. If you have a pair of binoculars, go outside and check it out!
Paul
pdautotech has contributed a photo to this story.
at 22:18 on February 24th, 2009
This is taken in Malaysia, Punggai. The telescope used is Pentax SDUF, with camera Atik 16HR on Vixen GPD2 mount. Taken around 22nd Feb 2009 midnight (local time). Clear Astronomik filter is used. Due to cloud passes, the stacked stars did not form a continuous trail.
leek_meng_lee has contributed a photo to this story.
at 19:09 on February 25th, 2009
This photograph is GIF image made from 52 images.
A smooth image was made more than the movement of the comet expected it.
Photo equipment: Canon EOS 50D Takahashi FS60CB
fububujp2008 has contributed a photo to this story.