Comet Lulin

*above copied from msnbc website

During the next few weeks, a fine comet bright enough for observation in binoculars and possibly even with the naked eye will provide a fine skywatching target when weather permits.

Comet Lulin will be closest to Earth on Feb. 24 and prime viewing will occur then and on surrounding nights. For sharp-eye viewers with dark, rural, skies, the comet is expected to be visible as a dim, fuzzy star.

People living in cities and suburbs are not expected to see the comet with the naked eye, but binoculars and telescopes will reveal its cloudy head and perhaps a striking tail, too. Comets are unpredictable, however, so it's impossible to say how bright this one might become.


**** observation of lulin by S.A.C. member Stan Peck ****
Sat, Feb 20th - around 2:00 a.m.
conditions - 2 -
aperture - 4 1/4"
magnification - 11x, 29x, and 44.5x
observation - lulin was an easy easy object to find.. looking up at virgo, it was just below and to the right of star gamma in Virgo.. which i was using a 445mm astroscan telescope. i found the object shining brightly with a nice coma and bright nucleus. using averted vision, i think i spotted one tail jetting out towards the right. I'm not positive on this because i was using such a small scope at the time. it was bluish white in color. i didn't have my binoculars with me, but it definitely was a binocular object. Virgo at the time was high in the sky.
lulin definitely was worth the trouble of travelling to the S.A.C. site, Key Cave National Widlife Refuge. i spotted a few other objects that night, M3, M68, and M13.