Comet Lulin Reaches Closest Point to Earth Tonight

Photo of Comet Lulin by jpstanley, used under a Creative Commons license. Click through to see the process he used to make the image.

You can look up at the sky during almost any time of year and see some kind of astronomical occurrence -- meteor showers, planetary conjunctions, lunar and solar eclipses, and, for those of us in D.C., the well-known sight of the twice annual moon rising in line with the monuments. But few things have the celestial romance of seeing a comet in the sky. The last time we were able to see a comet from our roofdecks was in October 2007, when Comet Holmes burst to life a million times brighter, becoming as visible as the North Star.

The view may not quite rival the brilliance of Holmes, but we still have a chance to view an elusive comet tonight. Comet Lulin was discovered in China in 2007 and because of its trajectory, astronomers believe this might be the comet's very first visit to our little neighborhood of the universe. Lulin isn't as bright as Holmes, but should be visible through any regular set of binoculars through the city's lights, especially tonight, as it reaches its closest point to Earth. Because the comet is traveling the opposite way around the sun as our solar system's planets, it appears to be moving quite fast, so if you're a little patient you can actually see the comet's movement in front of the stars.

Since it's not visible with the naked eye, you have to know exactly where to point your binoculars or telescope. Look in the southeast sky around 9 or 10 p.m. and find Leo. You should find Comet Lulin just between Saturn and Leo's brightest star Regulus. Look closely and you'll see both it has both a tail and an antitail. There are already tons of images online of the greenish object, including this stellar view of the comet from NASA's Swift Gamma-ray Explorer satellite. We may never see this guy around our parts again, so enjoy it while you can!