by Cheryl Rofer
We have a new comet, one that is going backwards through the solar system!
It's rising before the sun, and reports are that it's easily visible through binoculars at about magnitude 7. Photographs show the beginnings of a tail, and an anti-tail too, the whole thing a nice green.
Sky and Telescope has locator charts and other information. More photos and history can be found here, and here is a growing list of links to articles on Comet Lulin.
All the articles will tell you that it's very hard to predict how bright a comet will get, or how long its tail, but Lulin is expected to reach magnitude 5. That's visible with the naked eye, but just barely.
And, since I've printed out the locator charts and see that it will be going near the constellation Corvus, I'll post a photo of our local corvids. A great flock of ravens settled in the yard on Sunday, trying to figure out how to attack the seed block, which I have set within a juniper tree. They were unsuccessful. These two are on top of my garage, as seen from my office.