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.
