C/2007 N3 Lulin - Update

Discovered on July 11 2007 at Lulin Observatory, comet C/2007 N3 will reach perihelion on January 10, 2009 and will pass 0.41 AU from Earth on 2009 February 24. This comet is just emerging from solar glare and so it's better placed for viewing in the morning sky. The most recent visual magnitude estimate shows it at magnitude 7.5

According to predictions, Comet Lulin may be as bright as 4th magnitude in late February when in Virgo, rapidly becoming visible in the evening sky.

This comet is actually showing a nice sunward pointing dust tail (antitail) along with a ion tail.

Here You can see our photo taken on 02 January 2009 remotely from from Mayhill (NM) through a 0.25 f/3.4 reflector + CCD (click on the image for a bigger version):

by Ernesto Guido, Giovanni Sostero and Paul Camilleri