Comet Lulin Closest To Earth Tonight 60
William Robinson writes "Comet Lulin, formally known as C/2007 N3, which is on a visit to the inner solar system, will make its closest approach to earth tonight, about 38 million miles away. To the naked eye, the comet looks like a fuzzy patch of hazy light in the southeastern sky near Saturn, at the tip of Leo the Lion's hind leg. After this brief visit, Lulin will be heading back out to its kin in the Oort Cloud."
Nice antenostication there, guys (Score:5, Informative)
Too bad the /. posting is a day late.
Re:Nice antenostication there, guys (Score:4, Informative)
It's my own word, to be pronounced just the same as antegnostication.
Re:Nice antenostication there, guys (Score:4, Informative)
You're right:
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?ID=dK07N030;orb=1;cov=0;log=0#orb [nasa.gov]
The commet will still be near Earth, but it is already saying goodbye.
Re:Nice antenostication there, guys (Score:5, Informative)
Monday? (Score:2, Informative)
Uh, I believe this happened Monday night.
Re:Nice antenostication there, guys (Score:3, Informative)
Or maybe two days late. TFA contradicts itself on this clearly unimportant point, saying Tuesday in the main article and Monday in the image caption.
Umm, *last* night guys (Score:5, Informative)
Even in my 8-inch scope it was pretty underwhelming. This was nowhere near a Comet Holmes type event, where it was obviously naked eye visible and glorious in any kind of optics. Flipped the scope around and went cluster hunting, so the night wasn't a wash :^).
You can still see it tonight (and for the next week) if you want: bring binoculars at the minimum. A finder chart is at Sky and Telescope [skyandtelescope.com]. Note that the chart on that page is for 9PM EST but that the detailed charts are UTC.
Yes, it was last night. No, it doesn't matter. (Score:3, Informative)
The comet did not disappear with a pop at 0000 GMT.
It may have been a little brighter last night, but the difference was almost certainly imperceptible. It was still an extremely marginal naked-eye object -- you need really dark skies to see it without binoculars or a telescope.
If you're a comet aficionado, it's kind of nice. With a good scope and well-trained eye, you might glimpse some color, and you might be able to make out the tails. If you're set up for astrophotography (with a tracking mount for your camera), you can get some good photos. But if that's the case, you probably didn't need Slashdot to tell you this was coming.