Sometimes astrological phenomenon are just out of this world amazing on the visual level and sometimes they are a bit ho-hum. Comet Lulin which is in the night sky for maybe another couple of days is of the latter category. Though comets are pretty amazing conceptually this tiny little guy is only visible with binoculars or a telescope. My digital camera sufficed to get an image, but nothing to be excited about. The crazy thing is this is a comet that nobody knew about until a 19 year old kid found it a couple months ago. To find it look in the South East sky at Leo and the comet should be just up off of Regulus (the right top most star in the constellation). Here is a shot of comet Lulin...its the big fuzzy in the upper right, regulus is the streaking bright line in the lower left.
While me and Adam were out there (South Gate of Redwood Park) we also got a good look at saturn (bottom left part of Leo right now). My camera could even pick up the shape of the planet:
But what was trully best was just seeing the clouds duck and turn in the night sky. since the moon was already down the only hint we got of the clouds were from the city lights to the west and a long exposure on the camera was really the only thing that allowed them to be seen. 30 second exposure:
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