I’m beginning to think I have had my one and only look at Comet Lulin.
For the past 5 days the UK has been covered in a smothering, impenetrable blanket of cloud, and Comet Lulin – which is, of course, leaving observers all over the rest of the world drooling – is hidden above it. I know it’s there, I can sense it’s there, but can I see it? No.
I set my alarm to go off every hour on the hour through last night in the hope that I’d pull back the curtain and see at least gaps in the cloud cover, but no, every time I looked outside the sky above Kendal resembled the inside of a planetarium before the house lights go down – a huge dome of dirty, mucky orange. The forecast is for more cloud and even some rain, so I think I’m going to miss the Great Conjunction between the comet and Saturn tonight, and will miss Lulin’s greatest brightness, too.
You know, it’s at times like this when – even though it has given me so much, and shown me so many wonders – that I absolutely HATE astronomy.
What makes it worse is knowing that if I packed in astronomy and took up cloud-spotting instead, every night would be clear…! 
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