Comet C/2007 N3 (Lulin), 2009/1/23

I spent time at the Naylor Observatory the past two nights. Last night I stayed the entire night, despite being extremely sleep deprived, and was rewarded with my first views of Comet C/2007 N3 (Lulin) at approximately 5:10 a.m. EST (10:10 UT). The comet formed an isosceles triangle with Zuben Elgenubi and Zuben Eschamali in Libra. I observed this early morning hairy star with the ASH 17" f/15 classical Cassegrain at 118 (55mm University Optics Plössl), 144 (45mm University Optics Plössl), 162 (40mm University Optics MK-70), and 202x (University Optics König-II) and with the 5" f/5 finder at 20 (32mm unbranded Erfle), 32 (20mm Meade Series 4000 Plössl), and 40x (16mm Brandon).

Comet Lulin was perhaps in the upper sixth-magnitude range in brightness, although making an accurate estimate was difficult due to less than optimal transparency. I couldn't make out much in the way of detail, even to how concentrated the comet's fairly large coma was. Comet Lulin's orbital geometry is rather unusual. This may be its first passage through the solar system.

Finder charts are posted at http://www.skyhound.com/cometchasing/comets/2007_N3.gif and http://www.astrodrayer.com/lulin/LulinN3-1.gif

Further information on this comet is available at http://cometography.com/lcomets/2007n3.html and http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/35992534.html

Fellow ASH member Dave Lassiter captured a fine image of the comet with the ASH 14" f/10 Meade LX200GPS Schmidt-Cassegrain on Wednesday morning. He also imaged it last night, along with many other celestial objects. I'm including Dave's image from Wednesday morning.

Dave Mitsky

Attached Image:

I managed to get going this morning at 4 am CST and hunt for Comet Lulin. Star hopping from Spica into Libra (alpha 1,2) to upsilon Libra and there it was.

Truly a faint fuzzy through my 16 x 60 Pentax binoculars, but clearly there. The skies here north of Dallas were above average. You could see the faintest star in the Big Dipper bucket with the naked eye. (That's how bad things are here folks.) A very dim tail seemed to be horizontal. The reddish,8 mag, SAO158995 was also in the field of view.

Plan to take advantage of the sky moon/window over the next few days to continue to view as it gets brighter.

Pete

Saw it this morning with 15x70 binos. Obvious and easy to find just west and north of Spica.
My 10" is ready for the fly-by, just hope my back is.