Comet Lulin (C2007 / N3) at approximately 6th magnitude, passes just 2 degrees away from Saturn (upper right), shining brilliantly at magnitude 0.6. The spikes on Saturn are diffraction effects from the aperture blades in the camera lens. Lulin's bright anti-tail points to the upper left, and it's faint blue ion tail points to the lower right. Sigma Leonis, a 4th magnitude star, is the other bright star in the frame.

I think I caught a tumbling satellite in between Comet Lulin and Saturn in this picture. Photo Details: Comet Lulin and Saturn Taken on Feb. 24, 2009 (12:05 A.M. CST) with 105mm Sigma telephoto piggybacked on my 16inch F/4.5 Newtonian Telescope Canon XSi DSLR 120sec. exp @ISO 1600 f/3.5. Image processed with Adobe Photoshop CS3, Digital Photo Professional, Blackframe Noise Reduction and Neat Image. In between Saturn and the comet appears to be a tumbling satellite?

The tail is evolving so rapidly from night to night!

Comet Lulin's ion tail now resembles smoke. Equipment used included a Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II Camera Lens at f/2.8 and Canon XTi piggybacked on a C8. Exposure was 18x300 sec @ ISO 800 guided on comet nucleus + 20 x 30 sec guided on stars.

Captured on Feb 22, 12:20-1:00AM MST near Upham, NM. The comet measures ~4.5 degrees from tail to tail in this inverted image.