Finally Seen Comet Lulin
Last night, after waiting most of the week (and being defeated by cloud), I finally got to see comet Lulin.
There was no sign of it with the naked eye but I could see it (after a little bit of searching) with my 10x50 binocular, and also with my 20x60 monocular. Not the most impressive of comets, at least not at this point. There was some obvious elongation, but I wouldn't say I could see any kind of tail. There wasn't any obvious "concentration" to it at all, it was more of a large ghostly colourless patch than anything else.
2 comments:
I too finally saw this last night. Cloud was in the way the rest of the week and when there was a gap in the cloud it either was too early for Leo to be up or the gaps were too small for me to find Leo as a starting point.
I was somewhat dissapointed when I did find it and after some research, "naked eye" was only for areas with no light pollution and magnitude 6 is pretty much the limit for the eye. I did find it in my 15 x 70 binos, all I spotted was a faint hazy patch. I even took a 30 second exposure with my camera on a tripod and there was little to be seen. Pretty much what you described. Perhaps we were just a few days too late or the hype was just all wrong.
Given that it's a pretty fast moving comet I suspect it's all in the timing. I'm sure a week ago it was a far more impressive sight.
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