Being Global: The World at Your Front

Yesterday,Nepal Astronomical Society(NASO) organized star party to observe comet Lulin at NAST premises from 18:30-21:30 hrs. Though the participants were a bit dissapointed due to the clould,they finally got the view of Comet Lulin through 4.5 inch Newtanian telescope along with two binaculars. The participation was huge.Everyone was there after the news on the front page of The english National Daily THE KATHMANDU POST. Here is the link to the news that had been published on the front page of the daily: http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=181734 Today,we can see the above photos in two dailys KANTIPUR DAILY and THE KATHMANDU POST.

Comet C/2007 N3 (Lulin) the highlight comet of this season is presently gracing the eastern skies. From January 2009 the comet has been rapidly getting higher and brighter, as it glides westwards from zodiacal constellations Libra (scales), Virgo (maiden), Leo (lion), Cancer (crab) and Gemini (twins). It is swinging around the Sun with incredible average speed of circa fifty five kilometers per second. It was at perihelion (closest position to Sun) on 10 January at sheer 182 million kilometers. Its aphelion (furthest point to Sun) is estimated to be unimaginably 270 thousand AU away. One Astronomical Unit (AU) is defined as the mean Sun to earth distance that measures solely 150 million kilometers. Its approximate orbital period has been calculated to be fairly 49.5 million years. Lulin is a long-period comet. Since its course is moderately parabolic, it could be concluded that its next visit to our inner Solar System would not probably repeat in foreseeable future. Its coma contains t...