Green Comet Approaches Earth (Not a Superhero Reference)
Photo by amateur astronomer Jack Newton from his backyard in Arizona
On Monday February 16 and again on Tuesday February 24, if you are very lucky, there are no clouds and you are up before dawn (I’m looking at you Will Campbell), you may be able to see the Green Comet in the southwest sky. A telescope and/or binoculars might be a big help.
Comet Lulin (or Comet C/2007 N3 for you sticklers), discovered in 2007 by 19 year old student Quanzhi Ye in Taiwan, is green and might not be quite visible to the naked eye and there is a chance the bright LA basin will make it even harder to detect, but to see a green comet? Might be worth a go.
Read more about on Nasa’s Green Comet page.
Jump past the comet’s tail to see sky maps for both those pre-dawns.
On February 16th the sky and comet position are thus (click for, uh, much bigger):
And on February 24:
Related posts:
I can hardly wait, now if I had a telescope with a camera attachment. But maybe…my super zoom will work on a tripod. We shall see.
Obviously nothing doing this morning. Here’s hoping Feb. 24th’s a little less cloudtastic.
Indeedy — we’ll hope for clear skies next week!