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ONE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING: Set your alarm for 1 am. That's the best time to see Comet Lulin riding high in the southern sky pleasingly close to golden Saturn: sky map. To the unaided eye, Lulin looks like a faint patch of gas. Point your telescope at that patch and you will see a lovely green comet.
Paolo Candy sends this picture, a 5-minute exposure through an 8-inch telescope, from the Cimini Astronomical Observatory in Italy:
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"The comet seems to be losing part of its ion tail," notes Candy. "It looks like a puff of smoke!"
On Tuesday morning, Feb. 24th, Comet Lulin will swing past Earth only 38 million miles away for the best view yet. Got clouds? No problem. The Coca-Cola Space Science Center in Columbus, Georgia, plans to webcast the encounter. "We're going to transmit the view through our observatory's 16-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope," says astronomy professor Rosa Williams of Columbus State University. "The webcast begins at 11:30 EST on Monday, Feb. 23rd and will continue until 5 a.m. EST on Tuesday the 24th." Tune in!