h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

26 Feb 2009
Comet Lulun passed through its closest approach last night. Just half an AU away from Earth. 'Close' on the cosmic scale. Really it should be quite bright, but by all accounts its just about at naked eye level.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090225.html


A chance to judge it would be a fine thing.

Three nights running I've been trying to get sight of it. Each night it's been cloudy. The first night just 10/10ths. Last night I got a fleeting glimpse of Leo but long enough to identify anything. This evening just scudding clouds with small breaks. Useless!

Still, we can but try.

Deke

27 Feb 2009
Clear conditions at dusk revealed a beautiful three day old moon cradling the old moon illuminated with Earthshine. The horns of the crescent pointed towards a brilliant Venus. Superb against the blue of the fading twilight. Headed homeward in the car the sight of these two kept cropping up in the windscreen. It promised a clear night with a better than evens chance of finding Lulin.

Not to be though. By the time it was dark enough and Leo was 'up', cloud had taken over which just got thicker as the night wore on.

Hey Ho...
Deke

3 March 2009
On the night of the 1st march we had a reasonably clear sky. Using the binnies I managed to pin it down. It seems quite large but not very bright.

The night after was quite clear too. for a time. Now Im able to get to it easily. The amount of travel was evident.

Tomorrow it should be faily close up to the Beehive. M44.

Deke.

Struggled to find it tonight with 10x50 binocs, but it's still hanging in there.
Last saw it to the left of delta gemini, and tonight (20:30) it's above-left of zeta. Would never find it if I didn't know approx. where to look! Found this link useful: http://media.skyandtelescope.com/documents/Comet_Lulin_Mar14.pdf

Tried the telescope but it was just a bigger fuzzy blob....and even harder to locate as it's nearly overhead so the scope was a swine to line up. Found it more by luck by scanning around the area with a very low power eyepiece. The mild(-ish) weather makes a pleasant change - no condensation on the optics
Phil.

Hi there phil. Good to hear from you.

I’ve struggled to see this one at all, but I have had a couple of sightings of it. It’s certainly not been as prominent as last years Comet Holmes. But neither the recent weather nor my locality have helped any. Fairly cloudy over the last week when I’ve had the opportunity to get out.

I did, I think pick up Ceres while I was out the last time, which is a first and a bonus for me as I don‘t remember really trying for that before.

Personally I need to get out a bit more this year and get to grips with ‘GoTo’ What sort of ‘scope are you using?

Deke

Hi Deke, nice to meet you too. As you've guessed I'm new here, but glad I found this section (via GB's article) as it forced me to get out and try for Lulin, even though I missed it at its peak. Came to h2g2 to get some help with a musical project, coincidentally inspired by my interest in astronomy http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/F74130?thread=6387739 it's a funny old world We moved to this fantastic dark-sky location 3 years ago, but I've hardly done any astronomy - still sorting out housy things The scope is a 6" reflector on an alt-azimuth mount, very lightweight so easy to lift the whole thing - suits my dodgy back. All steered by hand; no fancy gadgets. Have a larger oldy-worldy one (Fullerscope?) with cast-iron legs & a motor drive still packed away - but that's another story. The last comet I saw was Hale-Bopp, and managed to get some great pictures using a 35mm film/slide camera on a home-made barn-door gadget. Must admit, winding a handle round once per minute for 8 minutes in the freezing cold needs a degree of dedication (or madness). But the results showed both tails in all their glory so it was worth it Well done spotting Ceres. I was only reading the h2g2 articles on it the other day; never thought of looking for that so something new to try next time.... although the weather seems to have finally broken after a week of clear nights. Phil

I enjoy most kinds of music, but I’m not much of a musician I’m afraid as I can barely carry a tune to save my life. There is a music appreciation soc here somewhere that you might try posting to. Perhaps someone there can give an opinion. I quite liked the couple of tracks I’ve tried. I think it’s here U150368

I’ve just replaced my old clunker 4.5 in reflector with a S/H 90mm Meade SCT. it’s a whole lot better reproduction though. Its really big benefit though is its automatic tracking. It’s a real boon not to have to fiddle with the knobs every few seconds. When the temperatures a bit better I’ll spend a bit more time with it.

I would really have liked a larger scope but this one will have to do for now.

Deke