A new comet enters our skies in February.
Comet Lulin (2007 N3) is speeding towards the Earth, at present. It will get closest to us on February 24th and be less than half the Earth-Sun distance away. Then it heads away again, out into our Solar System and by early April, Lulin will have already crossed the orbit of Mars.
Comet Lulin, before dawn 6th February, in Libra
The comet is called Lulin, after the observatory in Taiwan where the image of its approach was captured. It was actually discovered in 2007, by a Chinese meteorology student Quanzhi Ye.
The good news for amateur astronomers is, Comet Lulin should be easily observable with binoculars or a small telescope.
Here are some sky maps I’ve made using Stellarium software, for three particular dates in February (click each image, for a larger version). Continue reading
here… 