Comet Lulin

February 23, 2009
7:45-9:15pm CST
Partly Cloudy/Hazy skies
wind calm - 15 degrees temp
Snow cover present
Port Barrington, IL
10" Dob.
Hot Glug

Lulin was jointly discovered by Asian astronomers in July of 2007. Quanzhi Ye from China first saw the comet on images obtained by Chi-Sheng Lin from Taiwan, at the Lu-lin Observatory.

The most interesting characteristic of this comet is its orbit. Lulin is actually moving in the opposite direction as the planets, so its apparent velocity will be quite fast. Estimates are it will be moving about 5 degrees a day across the sky, so when viewed with a telescope or binoculars, you may be able to see the comet's apparent motion against the background stars.

Using a 10" Dobsonian with a 10mm eyepiece, Comet Lulin was easily found just a couple degrees south of Saturn in the eastern sky. Looking like a fuzzy greenish/blue dot, I could just make out a tail - through very short and stout. I was unable to see the antitail.

Lulin is composed of frozen ice, dust and gases. Cyanogen gas and diatomic carbon present in it, when melted by sunlight, make it appear green. Lulin has a parabolic orbit and it takes about 50 million years to revolve around the Sun; therefore it will not repeat in the foreseeable future so this is considered a very rare celestial event. Using a 45mm eyepiece, you can see Comet Lulin and Saturn in the same view.

Saturn is becoming a treat to view in the eastern evening sky. Saturn was visible with rings edge on. Four moons were visible including Rhea, Mimas, Titan and Dione. I could just barely make out some darker creme cloud bands. There is very little contrast in cloud bands vs Jupiter which reveals much more.

I also viewed Messier 40. M40 is one of the three "curiosities," or unusual objects, in Messier's catalog. It is a double star, which was also cataloged later as Winnecke 4 (WNC 4). TYC6539-2293-1 is the larger of the two stars. I am not sure why this formation was cataloged as a Messier object - other than the fact that Charles Messier did not want it to be mistaken as a comet. M40 is found in Ursa Major and is best seen using a 10mm eyepiece.

On February 24th, Comet Lulin will be at its closest and brightest. I will attempt to photograph it as well as Jupiter and Venus - with weather permitting.

Venus

This image of Venus was taken using my 10mm StarShoot SS Camera II 1.3 MP. This image was taken at dusk on February 16th, 2009. The temperature was about 25 degrees with clear skies and calm wind.

Venus is always brighter than the brightest stars, with its apparent magnitude ranging from −3.8 to −4.6. On this evening, Venus was visible even before the sun fully set. The diameter of Venus is only 650 km less than the Earth's, and its mass is 81.5% of the Earth's. Venus orbits the Sun at an average distance of about 108 million km, and completes an orbit every 224.65 days. As it moves around its orbit, Venus displays phases in a telescopic view like those of the Moon: In the phases of Venus the planet presents a small "full" image when it is on the opposite side of the Sun. It shows a larger "quarter phase" when it is at its maximum elongations from the Sun.

-Wikipedia

"The Cosmic Connection"

"We are like the inhabitants of an isolated valley in New Guinea who communicate with societies in neighboring valleys (quite different societies, I might add) by runner and by drum. When asked how a very advanced society will communicate, they might guess by an extremely rapid runner or by an improbably large drum. They might not guess a technology beyond their ken. And yet, all the while, a vast international cable and radio traffic passes over them, around them, and through them... We will listen for the interstellar drums, but we will miss the interstellar cables. We are likely to receive our first messages from the drummers of the neighboring galactic valleys - from civilizations only somewhat in our future. The civilizations vastly more advanced than we, will be, for a long time, remote both in distance and in accessibility. At a future time of vigorous interstellar radio traffic, the very advanced civilizations may be, for us, still insubstantial legends. "

-Carl Sagan