Comet Lulin is Passing by the Earth – by Marielle

Watching The Skies For Comet Lulin

Feb. 23, 2009, Melissa Block, All Things Considered (NPR)

A nineteen-year-old discovered Comet Lulin two years ago, and now we it is passing by Earth. “After it gets dark, look for two bright stars near the horizon: one is the planet Saturn, the other is Regulus, the star, and for the next few nights, Lulin will be somewhere between them," says Kelly Beatty, senior contributing editor of Sky & Telescope magazine. Then take some binoculars and look through them and try to see the comet between those two stars. For the rest of this week, you will be able to see the comet with binoculars, but in the next month, you will have to use a small telescope. It will get harder and harder to see until you can’t see it unless you’re at the observatory.
If you look through your binoculars when it’s visible, you will see that the comet has two tails. One is in the front and one is in the back. The one in the front is shorter and the one in the back is longer.
Tomorrow night I will try to see the tails. I think that they are going to look pretty. If you try, I hope you see the comet also.