Lulin is still bright enough to shine through thin clouds as shown by this 6 sec exposure. Later in the evening, some auroras appeared in the sky allowing for some snapshots of both in the same frame using a 50mm wide-angle lens. Picture quality at such high ISO values (~4000) under a hazy sky is inevitably far from optimal, but the sight of this wonderful comet under the dancing auroras was absolutely breathtaking.

Photo details: Nikon D3, Nikkor 50 mm f/1,8, 6-10 secs exposure, 3200-6400 ISO.

Lulin, Regulus and Leo I. The telescope is a Takahashi Epsilon-180, 500mm / f2.8. The camera: Canon EOS5d with modified IR-Filter. Exposure times: 50 x 2min for lulin, 1 x 2min for the background.

a sequence of the comet Lulin evolution in the moments of its maximum brightness, taken with a Takahashi FSQ 106 ED f/5 and CCD SBIG STL11000M.

The early morning of March 01, 2009 was clear and calm in Summit County, Colorado. I located Comet Lulin in binoculars using Regulus in Leo as a reference. I photographed the comet with my Canon 50D using a 70-200 1:4L lens at 200mm atop my NJP mount. Images were 4 min x 12 at ISO 1600 and stacked in Images Plus.

This animation was made with a series of 5 minute exposures over a 2 hour 45 minute time period. I am totally amazed at the speed this comet is traveling. It is almost as if you can watch it move in the eyepiece. What a beautiful sight under dark skies!

20 minutes of RGB each for the comet and 15 mins for the background stars, all in 5 min subs. Tak FSQ106 Scope, SBIG ST2000XM camera, guided through Tak FS60C.