Comet Lulin at it's Brightest

I took the top photo of comet Lulin on February 20, 2009 as this comet neared it's closest pass with Earth February 23rd. The reddish dust tail, the anti-tail, seen on the left, grows larger as the faint gas tail, at lower right, shrinks in size.

For this photo I used my 90mm F/11 refractor & -0.5 focal reducer.
In the lower photo taken February 25, the date of opposition, the gas tail points directly away from Earth & Sun and is unseen because the comet is directly opposite the Sun in the sky.

This is a very rare alignment for a bright comet.

The dust tail is well presented & at it's longest & brightest.

Over 1.5 degrees of dust tail is seen. This photo was taken at low power with my 80mm F/5 refractor & -0.5 focal reducer.

Comet Lulin Star Shoot Photos

Comet Lulin is due to pass near the Earth on February 23, 2009 at the same time that it appears to pass 2 degrees south of Saturn.

This comet appears to pass so close to Saturn because comet Lulin is closely aligned with the ecliptic, the Sun & planets path through the sky.

Although the rule of thumb is that comet tails point away from the Sun, a comet aligned with the ecliptic with an angular distance from the Sun that is increasing, can display an anti-tail that appears to point toward the Sun.This is because the dust tail, although it initially points away from the Sun, curves as it is spread out along the orbit of the comet. At the same time the gas tail can be seen pointing 180 degrees away, directly away from the Sun.

I took these photos on February 1st & 7th with 114mm reflector & 80mm refractor.