Comet Lulin in motion

Posted 04-28-2009 by Michael Bakich

Comet Lulin animation Here’s another great example of material I receive as Photo Editor of Astronomy. Astroimager Robert Lockwood from San Diego created an animation he did of Comet C/2007 N3 (Lulin).

For the final animation, Robert combined 75 exposures — 25 each through red, green, and blue filters. Each exposure lasted 45 seconds. He also allowed an additional 30 seconds to elapse between sets of three.

The telescope Robert used was a 7.2-inch Takahashi Epsilon-180 hyperbolic astrograph at f/2.8. His camera was a Santa Barbara Instrument Group ST-10XME, and he used Astrodon E-Series filters.

The final result shows the comet traveling against the background stars for 2 hours, 35 minutes. Nice going, Robert!

See more Comet Lulin images in our Online Reader Gallery.

Comments (1) | Tags: Michael Bakich, observing, telescopes, imaging, comets

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ayiomamitis said:

I was hoping to pursue the retrograde motion of Lulin with daily images over a period of 10-12 days during the second half of April but .... the weather had other plans.
Perhaps the next major comet will assist in this regard!

Best wishes from Athens.

Anthony.

April 28, 2009 2:57 PM