Green light for a close encounter: 'Jupiter-sized streak past Earth tonight

reply to post by Retseh
[You'd think that the days of amateurs discovering stuff like this with the naked eye would long since have been replaced with the military finding stuff way in advance of the rest of us.]

They could, but a huge percentage of the satellites out there are pointed towards Earth.

Welcome to Prison Planet.

Originally posted by BorgHoffen
I cant believe, its been there for 2 years, and is not on Microsoft worldwide Telescope.

Perhaps there is a reason for this?

Still cloudy where I am in the UK and is set to be the same for the next couple of days worse luck.
Here is a video that " Astrojunk" has made of the comet.

Watch this speedy comet move across the sky! If you are wondering why the stars seem to rotate, I captured this using a guidescope atop my dob which has an alt-az mount. Boy do I need a field de-rotator!

And heres another made by"nsajja"

Comet Lulin closest to Earth. Filmed on 24th Feb 2009 in Ontario, Canada.

[edit on 24-2-2009 by tarifa37]

reply to post by tarifa37


Great videos. I did find it neat in the first video, that at about 36 seconds into it, something shoots in front of it.....check it out. Very cool none the less.....

Ya i posted about this comet about three weeks ago i hope to get some good looks at it i cant wait.
Related article
NASA
ATS link

Great post, this sort of thing has always fascinated me. Is there any myths or folklore that can be attached to this comet. I live in Illinois, what would be the best time to get a look at it?

Here's a beauty from Spaceweather......

Lulin 22feb

Enlarge!!!!!


Peace

reply to post by operation mindcrime


Is that an actual photo or a representation? Either way it's breathtaking!

It's on it's way out of the solar system having gone around the sun at 140,000 miles per hour. Enjoy it while it lasts.

It won't have an effect on us so don't panic. It is however a rare event and probably won't be back until life is long gone from the earth.

Originally posted by texaspike09
reply to post by tarifa37

 

Great videos. I did find it neat in the first video, that at about 36 seconds into it, something shoots in front of it.....check it out. Very cool none the less.....

Oh yeah, well spotted it comes in at 14,12 and leaves at 14.13.50 approx so takes nearly 2 mins to pass across the field of view .I suspect that it must just be a plane but you never know.

[edit on 24-2-2009 by tarifa37]

reply to post by Zeus2573


Nope, that's the real deal!!!

taken by:

Phillip Jones,
Central Texas Astronomical Society observatory grounds, Clifton, TX
Feb. 22, 2009

Comet Lulin captured on Feb 22. The blue anti-tail is beautiful.


It really is beautiful out there....wish those clouds would go away, can't see a thing over here...

I found this interesting as I was wondering what made the comets tail trail behind it as everyone knows there is no air or wind in space to cause this .Or is there?

Like the planets, comets orbit the sun as well. Comets, however, tend to have VERY eccentric orbits, approaching fairly close to the sun, then traveling well outside the orbit of Pluto. What makes comets such a spectacular view in the sky is their tail. This bright, cone-shaped cloud following the comet provides wonderful photographic opportunities.

Comets are made most from ice and dust particles. When a comet is outside the orbit of Jupiter it tends to simply be another object floating in space. Once it comes inside the orbit of Jupiter, however, the solar wind is strong enough to start blowing the dust from the comet. As the comet gets closer, the temperature rises, and the ice begins sublimating (going directly from a solid to a gas without passing through the liquid stage.) Many people believe that the tail of a comet is directly behind the comet like dust being left behind as the comet races through space. It is really the solar wind causes that causes a comet's tail by blowing all of the debris off of the comet. Because of this, a comet's tail always faces away from the sun and not necessarily behind the comet's path.

reply to post by operation mindcrime


I was going to try to get a glimpse of it later on this evening, but after seeing that photo......no need to bother. It doesn't get any better than that. Maybe I'll try to see it anyway. That pic got saved to my photo album....... hope you don't mind. Thanks a bunch!

Say what telescope do they use to see out that far into space other then at an observatory? Would it be one of those $1000 telescopes?

Originally posted by tarifa37
I found this interesting as I was wondering what made the comets tail trail behind it as everyone knows there is no air or wind in space to cause this .Or is there?

Like the planets, comets orbit the sun as well. Comets, however, tend to have VERY eccentric orbits, approaching fairly close to the sun, then traveling well outside the orbit of Pluto. What makes comets such a spectacular view in the sky is their tail. This bright, cone-shaped cloud following the comet provides wonderful photographic opportunities.

Comets are made most from ice and dust particles. When a comet is outside the orbit of Jupiter it tends to simply be another object floating in space. Once it comes inside the orbit of Jupiter, however, the solar wind is strong enough to start blowing the dust from the comet. As the comet gets closer, the temperature rises, and the ice begins sublimating (going directly from a solid to a gas without passing through the liquid stage.) Many people believe that the tail of a comet is directly behind the comet like dust being left behind as the comet races through space. It is really the solar wind causes that causes a comet's tail by blowing all of the debris off of the comet. Because of this, a comet's tail always faces away from the sun and not necessarily behind the comet's path.

Perhaps you misunderstand the quote you posted; There is actually no wind/air in space. What they are actually speaking of is 'Solar Wind', which, in effect, is just plasma discharged from the sun itself. Check into it, actually, there's some really cool stuff out there if you read into it! What I personally find cool about it, is the fact that this plasma discharge from the sun can be travelling around 900km/SECOND, and burns at about a Trillion degrees celsius!

After understanding what the 'wind' you speak of really is, it's also not the largest jump to realize just how much damage that plasma can really do to anything in its path, ie. the comet!!

Great topic here. Hopefully it'll be nice and clear here tonight so I can get a nice glimpse of it!

J

reply to post by Zeus2573


Toss that logic, its always better with your own eyes. Even if you have a pair of binoculars you will be able to see Lulin well.

Its just to the right of Saturn, so if you know how to find Saturn it shouldnt take you more than a few seconds to find Lulin.

I've got a clear night here outside Toronto, I'm going to look at it with my telescope when I get home from work tonight. 12 - 2am best viewing hours as it will be highest in the sky.

Peace

PS - Keep in mind that the boy who found it, although not a professional was using extremely professional equipment.

we got sprayed all day today in Toronto .Ont..You can still see them throughout the sky.Wont be getting a view of that tonite and i'm an hour drive north of the big smoke.

Don't be so silly, the green light got nothing to do with that comet.

One, the neighbor is using a green laser pointer trying to reach UFO's, usually ground to air.

Or, it is Lidar being tested, like often in my area, which is now heading I think for Mars.

Or finally like the night I thought, I bet if you if I had one of those nice green laser pointer James Gilliland has, you would show up for me.

So at 3am I am almost asleep. This thought keeps nagging at me, I parked on the side that gets plowed and will get towed. So I toss and turn for 15 minutes, get dressed and go out. No my car is on the right side, however there is a light in the sky over my house, a big green bar in the clouds about 1000 feet long horizontal, start to end coming from the ship.

So there I am in the middle of the street, my car keys in hand, and then I realize I am about 100 feet from a police car watching the same thing as me. So I thought, do I go up and risk being taken to the mental institution, or maybe he is wondering why they are there.

So well, I went to go up, what the hell, and they might have been reading my mind cause the green laser bar type light went out, they blinked out, and I shrunk into the shadows. He must have called hi co-workers cause they tore up the street like there was a fire.

And then I realized. I don't need the laser pointer, it is a waste of time. I did not meditate for a few days after that, kind of weirded me out that my thoughts might be monitored by them.

So hard to say that these peoples green light you are talking a but is that kind of light, but I will tell you, once it happens to you, I hope you meet people with a more open mind. Cause it might just be the same kind.

Originally posted by smokingman2006
This should answer the questions of all those member who have been posting about the green light in our skies lately
[edit on 24-2-2009 by smokingman2006]

reply to post by expatwhite



I think by Jupiter sized it means that from here it looks as big as Jupiter.

Originally posted by mrfire9
Say what telescope do they use to see out that far into space other then at an observatory? Would it be one of those $1000 telescopes?

If you mean something like this photo, then that was taken with a "4-inch Takahashi refractor" according to spaceweather.com, which would probably put it somewhere in that price range, perhaps a few times more - I'm not sure exactly, but it's certainly not a very expensive scope.

The mount which tracks the stars is just as important if not more so. Astrophotography is more about collecting light than high magnification.

Many objects are quite large, but very faint, and since the earth is constantly rotating, you need a mount that can accurately track the stars for a fairly long time period in order to obtain a long enough exposure which will capture faint detail like that in a comet's ion tail.

Check out this page for an idea of all the equipment involved. Google should be able to tell you what it all cost