Green comet Lulin approaches Earth this month
Jack Wine • Stargazing • March 1, 2009
During February and March, we are treated to the first naked-eye comet since Hale-Bopp in 1997. It's called the green comet because of the visible color created by the melting of the comet's composition. This new comet is named after the observatory where it was first discovered.
The comet has a greenish color and two tails that can be seen in most moderate-size telescopes. Comet Lulin was first photographed at China's Sun Yat-sen University.
In July 2007, a student of meteorology, Quanzhi Ye, was staring at a black-and-white star field taken by Taiwanese astronomer Chi Sheng Lin. While on "sky patrol" at the Lulin Observatory, Ye's finger moved from star to star and suddenly stopped. One of the stars was not a star. It was a comet and Ye saw it first. Needless to say, Ye was very excited to be the first to locate comet Lulin. In 1997, while using a small telescope, Ye thought he had discovered the brightest comet of the century, however it turned out to be comet Hale-Bopp, which had been discovered earlier.
Comet Lulin is now approaching Earth and will pass at a distance of about 36 million miles. Under dark sky conditions, the comet can be seen with the naked eye. I located it for the first time about 5 a.m. Feb. 24 with a pair of 7x50 binoculars.
The comet is now on its way out of our solar system and because of its parabolic trajectory, probably will never return. However, with binoculars you should be able to track it during March as it moves several degrees across the sky each night. There is a good chart to follow the comet in Sky and Telescope magazine.
Because of the positions of Saturn and Earth for the next few months, the rings are opening up a little from our point of view. However in September, the rings will totally disappear for several nights.
In March, Saturn rises in the southeast at 7 p.m. During early March, Venus slowly drops in the western sky. This is a great time to view Venus because it's relativity close to Earth, just a little more than 33 million miles.
Venus gives the appearance of a new moon early in the evening using a telescope at about 100X. Jupiter and Mercury rise in the southeast about 30 minutes before sunrise and may be difficult to locate.
Vernal equinox occurs March 20. Full moon occurs March 10. In North American sky lore, the March full moon is often called the full sap moon or the full crow moon. In the southern hemisphere, where it's now autumn, the full moon in March is called the harvest moon. |
