I just caught my first glimpse of the elusive Comet Lulin! Well, it’s been elusive from Kendal because of a week of cloudy nights, but many people have seen it elsewhere. But tonight it was my turn – I saw it through my trusty pair of 10×50 binocs whilst standing in the middle of Abbot Hall Park. The sky was rather misty and badly light polluted with glow from the lights illuminating the nearby Parish Church, but I found it right away. In binocs it was definitely an elongated object, not a round one, but I can’t honestly say I detected any green tinge. I’m hoping for a much better view around 4am when the comet will be higher in the sky, and above all the murk and light pollution…! And as an added bonus I managed to see Saturn through my ‘scope, and the rings are now almost not there! Titan was a little sequin off to the right, but the air rising up from the house opposite was boiling too much to allow me to see anything else. Nice to see it again though!
UPDATE: Took another look at 2am but the sky had grown a little misty, so the comet was actually harder to see. But I did see it, through binocs, even though it took averted vision to pull it out of the background, so quite pleased with two sightings in one night! That’s the good news… the bad news is that my telescope broke last night!
Not the whole thing, not the mirror or anything tinkly, but the focusser tube decided that with a bright comet in the sky, Saturn’s rings closing up and a big IYA event tomorrow night it would be a GREAT time to strip part of its gear. Typical.
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Congrats, beat me to it… I just came to check your finder chart before setting off for a peek.
Got a great view through the ‘scope. Nice extended coma, fairly bright core. Fills my highest power eyepiece completely, takes a good chunk out of the lower powered ones too.