Comet Lulin report from Eastern Virginia

Spotted Comet Lulin this morning without difficulty with 7X50 binos -- dim,
fuzzy ball.

I am located at 37d 57m 45s N 76d 24m 36s W That's in
Northumberland County, VA, where the Potomac River joins the Chesapeake Bay.
Last couple of days have been cloudy, foggy, rain, drizzle, snow, ice.

Last night -- 28-29 January -- skies cleared, temps dropped into the 20's
and much of the humidity cleared out.

At 0530 EST, 29 Jan, I went out onto my back porch with a pair of 7X50 Nikon
binos, found Libra low in the SE sky and searched for about 30 seconds --
there was Lulin.

With the low mag of the binos the comet was a dim fuzzy ball with no
particular shape but I had no trouble finding it initially. I checked out a
few other objects, each time coming back to Lulin and had no trouble
re-locating it.

My scope -- 12-inch Dob -- is buried beneath boxes of Christmas decorations
in the garage, otherwise I would have hauled it out. Weather forecast for
tonight and tomorrow calls for clear skies so I'll clear out the mess and
plan to use the scope tomorrow morning.

"A-non-i-moose" wrote in message
...
Spotted Comet Lulin this morning without difficulty with 7X50 binos --
dim, fuzzy ball.

I am located at 37d 57m 45s N 76d 24m 36s W That's in
Northumberland County, VA, where the Potomac River joins the Chesapeake
Bay. Last couple of days have been cloudy, foggy, rain, drizzle, snow,
ice.

Last night -- 28-29 January -- skies cleared, temps dropped into the 20's
and much of the humidity cleared out.

At 0530 EST, 29 Jan, I went out onto my back porch with a pair of 7X50
Nikon binos, found Libra low in the SE sky and searched for about 30
seconds -- there was Lulin.

With the low mag of the binos the comet was a dim fuzzy ball with no
particular shape but I had no trouble finding it initially. I checked out
a few other objects, each time coming back to Lulin and had no trouble
re-locating it.

My scope -- 12-inch Dob -- is buried beneath boxes of Christmas
decorations in the garage, otherwise I would have hauled it out. Weather
forecast for tonight and tomorrow calls for clear skies so I'll clear out
the mess and plan to use the scope tomorrow morning.


Friday, 30 January 2009.

Observed Comet Lulin for 30 minutes between 0520 and 0550.

Orion XT-12, 12-inch dob, f 4.9 , 1500 mm FL.

Eyepieces:
-- 35 mm TV Panoptic, 43X
-- 26mm TV Panoptic, 58X
-- 10mm TV Radian, 150X

Skies were clear but 80 percent humidity kept things from being crystal
clear, 30 deg F.

Found comet with the 7X50 binos then located it by star hopping with the
Telrad. Best view was with the 26mm at 58X; at 150X the humidity was
obvious and the extra magnification did not clear up the comet at all. I
have an 18mm Radian that may have been better but it's on loan to a
neighbor.

I'm not an experienced observer so about all I can say is that the comet
appeared as a slightly elongated fuzzball with what may be the beginnings of
a tail trailing away from the point on the horizon where the sun would rise.

From my location 37d 57m 45s N 76d 24m 36s W the comet was about 150
deg azimuth, 40 deg altitude in Libra.

Saturday and Sunday are supposed to be repeat of today -- so -- I'll be back
out around 0500 both days.

As a bonus I found the Cat's Eye globular cluster for the first time. M4
was an easy find -- found Antares and moved slightly south and there it was
in the binos; found Antares with the 43X eyepiece and moved slightly to M4;
at 150X M4 dissolved into individual stars.

Finally, took a quick look at Saturn -- rings are edge-on to Earth but it's
still worth a look -- some banding on the planet at 150X but humidity was
beginning to interfere at that mag.