[Chaos-l] Nice Animated GIF Of Comet Lulin

[Terry Crook]

I now know what the 'fuzzy' is!
 From the Sky & Telescope site, 
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/comets/35992534.html:

<In telescopes and low-light images, it has been 
showing both a dim gas tail and a dust-spike 
antitail pointing in nearly the opposite 
direction. Its current brightness is about magnitude 5.2.  >

There's lots more photos & text, including much 
on anti tails & the comet's peculiar motion/orientation.

On 2/24, 8:42, I wrote:
Yes, I'm familiar with the ion tail vs the more visible dust tail.
However, this fuzzy area is preceding the comet 
coma, not trailing away (from the Sun) as is normal.
Possibly some gas eruptions from the head of the 
coma, illuminated and/or excited by solar radiation?
It seems in synch with the comet's motion, at 
least for now/during this photo series.

Someone tho't the streaks were earth satellites 
but I'd bet on meteor trails. The former would 
leave a longer trail than the meteors, it seems 
to me. Surely we may be able to identify the 
meteor shower?  His reference to camera slew is 
weird, as none of the star trails have moved 
during the ~2-minute duration/exposure.

There was one isolated bright spot very briefly, 
just ahead & above of the comet; possibly electronic noise?

OTOH, I can't make out NGC 4073 but then you know 
much better than I what to look for & have better eyesight!

  At 04:24 PM 2/24/2009, you wrote:
>Terry,
>
>An explanation of why we see two tails (one a 
>dust tail and one an ion tail) is visually given 
>at: http://www.sidleach.com/comet_c2007_n3_lulin_antitail.htm.
>
>I'm not entirely sure ... but looking at the 
>rough general area of the sky where Comet Lulin 
>was last Saturday, and matching up some of the 
>stars, I would say the bright star is beta 
>Virginis, or Zavijava.  And I think the faint 
>galaxy above the comet when it starts is NGC 
>4073 ... although there are a lot of galaxies in that area.
>
>Robert
>
>Terry Crook wrote:
>>Remarkable pix, thanks! I would have gone out 
>>to look for it locally (with binocs) but have 
>>been fighting a nasty sinus infection lately!
>>Two questions (for anyone):
>>         What is the star in the upper right center?
>>         If the Sun is to the right (w/ tail 
>> extending behind comet), what is the variable cloud ahead at about 1'oclock?
>>
>>At 12:02 PM 2/24/2009, Robert Nielsen wrote:
>>>Everyone,
>>>
>>>This has been making the rounds on some 
>>>astronomy forums: http://www.ccdargo.com/lulin.gif
>>>
>>>It's a really nice animated GIF of Comet 
>>>Lulin, taken last Saturday night where 61 
>>>images cover about 2 hours of the comet's movement against the star background.
>>>
>>>Credit: Tom Carrico
>>>
>>>Robert
>>>
>>>_______________________________________________
>>>Chaos-l mailing list
>>>Chaos-l at rtpnet.org
>>>http://rtpnet.org/mailman/listinfo/chaos-l
>>
>>Taurus Terry in Chapel Hill
>>35° 55' 47"N, 79° 01' 00"W

Taurus Terry in Chapel Hill
35° 55' 47"N, 79° 01' 00"W  
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