Comet Lulin Comes Closer

Comet Lulin will be on its closest approach (.41 AU) to earth on 24th February. It will not be much bright though (Max. magnitude 4.0 - 5.0). Still on a dark sky you may be able to spot it as a white splotch against the black sky. Look for it in the constellation Leo [skymap]. It will lie only a few degrees from saturn. The comet actually looks green through powerful telescopes. This is because, its gassy atmosphere, of the size of Jupiter, contains cyanogen(CN) and diatomic carbon(C₂), both glow green in sunlight.

Lulin's orbit is nearly a parabola and it's motion is opposite to that of the planets. So, this particular comet once leaves the inner solar system will never come this way again.

Lulin was discovered in July, 2007 by Ye Quanzhi in a photograph taken at the Lulin Observatory. It's technical name is C/2007 N3. It means that it is the 3rd comet discovered in the second half of July, 2007. The prefix C/ denotes that it is a non-periodic comet.

Comets are designated by the year of their discovery followed by a letter indicating the half-month of the discovery and a number indicating the order of discovery. A prefix is used for denoting nature of the comet. See Comet nomenclature



For more photos and skymaps see here
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/35992534.html