Lulin Under Clear Dark Skies

Comet Lulin

Comet C/2007 N3 Lulin
Sketch and Details by Michael Rosolina

C/2007 N3 (Lulin)
Comet
Friars Hill, West Virginia
23 January 2009

I got up early Friday morning before the waning crescent moonrise to get a fresh look at Comet Lulin under clear, dark skies. Except for images and Jeremy Perez’s sketch, I hadn’t seen the comet since early January and I was curious to see what changes had occurred visually. Lulin is still in the constellation Libra, but it is much brighter and higher in the sky now, an easy binocular object. The coma appears elongated due to the near head-on perspective from our point of view here on Earth and to the comet’s unusual orbital geometry. After viewing Lulin with my 12×36 image stabilized binoculars, I used my 108mm reflector and graphite pencils on white paper to make this field sketch which I later inverted digitally.

Best,

Michael Rosolina

6 thoughts on “Lulin Under Clear Dark Skies”

  1. Michael,

    Beautiful sketch of our bright guest. I hope to capture it before the moon enters the morning sky if it clears by then.

    Frank 🙂

  2. Marek and Frank, thanks! If you get a chance to observe Comet Lulin, try putting as much aperture on it as you can to tease out those faint tails.

    Michael

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