Comet Lulin 02/20/2009

[Celestron]

Mounted my Sigma 135-400 SPO lens on my Rebel 300D and then mounted them piggyback to my Celestron C8 SCT for Comet images last night right after midnight . This one is unedited cause the tail is so dim . Editing can cause the tail to disappear rather quickly for a short exposer . Also you will notice some streaks running in different direction s . I'm waiting on Dr Phillip from spaceweather to let me know if they are satellites or debris from the two satellites that collided in space a few days ago . The EXIF is with the image if you want more info . Cs'&Cs' welcome .

[Nighthound]

Very nice Ron. Great to see you posting again.

I tried twice last night to find this comet with the 15X70s and failed. Might be too dim for my skies at home. Too bad, I would have set up tonight and tried to get it with the Sky 90.

[Celestron]

Thanks Steve for the comment . You should be able to find LuLin easy . Follow the ecliptic line up from "SPICA" heading towards Saturn . At the moment it's just about 1/3-1/2 way to Saturn from SPICA . The 24th Saturn and Lulin should be in the same FOV of that Sky 90 . Good luck ! I know you can get alot better shot than i have here !

[Dusty]

Ohhh nice clean shot Ron !

:cool:

[Celestron]

Thanks Dusty for the kind comment ! Turns out the dim streaks to the right of the comet are Geostationary Satellites (http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=20&month=02&year=2009) . I thought maybe they were debris from the collided satellites but not :( . However i don't really know about Geostationary Satellites (http://www.tech-faq.com/geostationary-satellite.shtml) either .

[umbra]

Great shot! I shot a few of Lulin tonight as well. I hope you don't mind me posting in your thread. 30 second exposure taken with a 40D prime focus through my 11" SCT.

http://www.tristanmolina.org/picz/Lulin.jpg

[Celestron]

Very nice umbra ! I was going to image PF my 8" SCT but i did not P.A. so i knew i'd have star trails so i pssed on PF imaging .

[PolynesianMedic]

Great shots guys!

[MawcDrums]

Love Dr. Tony.. Spaceweather is such an amazing website..

[Adrena1in]

The 24th Saturn and Lulin should be in the same FOV of that Sky 90 .

Hey, and on the 24th there'll be a time when four of Saturn's moons will be visible as they transit across the face of the planet. What a rare photo opportunity that'll be!! :p

[chris.bailey]

Hey, and on the 24th there'll be a time when four of Saturn's moons will be visible as they transit across the face of the planet. What a rare photo opportunity that'll be!! :p

Only if we get a break in the clouds, what a rubbish season this has been so far weather wise, clocks will be changing soon as well.

[Sky of the Plains]

that is a good image. I have been trying to get shot for a long time, I'm going to try tonight when I got to some less LP(ed) skies. I tried using the barn door tracker I made, but my mount is really unstable and worthless, so Im just going to try and get a shot at 70mm or something. Oh and definitely bringing the scope, since I haven't seen the tail(s) yet.

I have seen it in omaha with 7x35 bino's I'd imagine it's visible in any skies with the right optics.