Late Saturday night I had a fine time in the backyard with a pretty, green-eyed young thing named Lulin. My wife Sue not only knew about all it, but she seemed almost totally undisturbed by my fascination with Lulin.
OK. So that's not too surprising since Lulin is the recently discovered comet that is currently visible (i.e., on the night of February 23) near the hind leg of Leo in the night sky.
This comet is unusual, both because of its blue-green tint and because we see it nearly "head on". Thus, it seems to have a wispy tail both to its left and to its right.
More unusual still, the comet will be very close Saturn tonight, and Saturn itself will put on a great show just before dawn on the 24th. All four of Saturn's moon will transit the face of the planet over the next several hours. That's a rare event--occurring at about fifteen-year intervals.
The weather forecast is for partly cloudy skies tonight so I don't know how much of all this I'll be able to see.
OK. What worries me here is that we're seeing the comet head-on...
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