Comet Lulin spotted

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starfinder
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Comet Lulin spotted

Post by starfinder »

After waiting for the clouds and haze to clear in the past two weeks, a crystal clear night finally arrived today.

With my LX-90 8" SCT, I managed for the first time to observe Comet C/2007 N3 (Lulin). I also photographed it. Thurs morning, 19 Feb 09 at 1.00 to 1.40am local time. It was in Virgo, about midway between Spica and Porrima.

Visually, it is quite faint from Singapore's urban skies. I detected some central condensation, but no trace of a tail. Its apparent size is perhaps that of Saturn. Comparing it to M53 (mag 7.7 globular) and M104 (mag 8.3 galaxy), the comet appeared brighter than both, but not by a whole lot. So it is perhaps mag 7. Very faint actually, and I had to strain to see it. The Moon (33% phase) had not yet risen.

When photographed, it exhibits a slight greenish tinge, but I cannot quite discern a tail. Put it down to urban light pollution.

The comet moved quite fast. In about 30 mins, it moved about 5 arc minutes or 300 arc seconds. The movement was very apparent in the photos.

I don't think it will get much brighter than this, since closest approach is I think on 24th Feb.
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Zephyrus
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Post by Zephyrus »

Wow, that's really awesome. I hope I'll get a chance to look at it too, especially on the 24th when it's around mag 5. Do post up the photos you have taken soon, can't wait to see them! (:
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rcj
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Post by rcj »

that's fantastic starfinder! hope to capture it on saturday morning, though the weather prediction seems to forcast clouds, we'll see.
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Robin Lee
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Post by Robin Lee »

The sky just now in Kluang is crystal clear too! I just managed to spot the comet with the 9*63 binocular. I haven't used the LX90 for months resulting in lossing of skill. Haha.. what a shame..

By the way, the mosquitoes are so irritating. There are at least 20 around me. Damn it!
Clear skies,
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superiorstream
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Post by superiorstream »

Hi,friends
Yes,yesterdays night was very" clear" and cloudless and I try to look for lulin too.I scan with my 20x100 old vixen bino and make out what appears to be lulin;(provided you use a starchart and know where that extra "star-lulin" is.)Its a no show here in Singapore.The coma around the comet is weak and is smear out by the background skyglow.In fact, the haze in our sky make those brighter star look like lulin-due to the haze induced coma.I compare it with M80 and I think M80 in scopius "coma" is much stronger than lulin(in Spore at least!)Compare to Holmes -no fight.Just hoping it will brighten up on 24 feb.
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starfinder
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Post by starfinder »

Given the heavy light pollution in the city, perhaps we could observe and image it from the East Coast Park. I recall that sometime in the middle of last year, I was at the ECP at Area C/D around midnight with a 20x80 bino; out to the southeast the sky was much less light polluted. For example, the globular M4 in Scorpius was quite bright.

This Comet rises earlier every day in the East. Last night it rose at 10:08pm. So this weekend may present a good chance.

Well, do post your images, rcj! We eagerly await them.

As for the images which I took, I did not get any really good one. More of a smudge. I will however try to post one but am low on available space on my account. Can someone tell me how to embedd an image using an external free link? Any recommendations?
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Post by Ch33Lin »

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Last edited by Ch33Lin on Sun Nov 16, 2014 5:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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cataclysm
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Post by cataclysm »

Wah! This is superb Gavin! [smilie=cute.gif]
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Tachyon
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Post by Tachyon »

Managed to capture this using GRAS just now. It's in monochrome (single 60s exposure). Will stack the color later....

http://www.singastro.org/album_showpage.php?pic_id=1104
[80% Steve, 20% Alfred] ------- Probability of Clear Skies = (Age of newest equipment in days) / [(Number of observers) * (Total Aperture of all telescopes present in mm)]
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Tachyon
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Post by Tachyon »

Ok, here is the color pic. Please excuse the graininess as I only took 1 shot each of luminance, R, G & B (each 60s):

http://www.singastro.org/album_showpage.php?pic_id=1105
[80% Steve, 20% Alfred] ------- Probability of Clear Skies = (Age of newest equipment in days) / [(Number of observers) * (Total Aperture of all telescopes present in mm)]
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