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Saturday, January 10, 2009

Comet Lulin to be Naked-Eye Visable

SpaceWeather reports that Comet Lulin (C/2007 N3), discovered in 2007 by a collaborative team of Taiwanese and Chinese astronomers, is swinging around the sun and approaching Earth. The photogenic comet has a bright tail and an "anti-tail" visible in mid-sized backyard telescopes. At closest approach in February, Comet Lulin is expected to brighten to naked-eye visibility [video].

Comet Lulin is expected to reach peak brightness around the time of closest approach, on February 23/24 along side Saturn in the sky. On that date, it will lie approximately 0.41 AU from Earth and shine around 5th magnitude, which would be visible to the unaided eye from a dark site. But it may grow brighter than this, and the good news is it is already sporting a tail - two, to be precise.

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