This February the omens say you may meet with a green-tailed beauty. Comet Lulin is her name. From Feb. 6 until February 24 (when she passes closest to Earth) Comet Lulin will be visible to us on clear nights, without the aid of binoculars or telescopes.<\/p>\n
Comet Lulin was first discovered in 2007. Quanzhi Ye, the Taiwanese astronomer who found the comet when he was just 19 years old, explains that Lulin is rare not only for its green, glowing tail, but also for the method of its discovery. “This is a ‘comet of collaboration’ between Taiwanese and Chinese astronomers,” said Lulin in a NASA interview. “The discovery could not have been made without a contribution from both sides of the Strait that separates our countries. Chi Sheng Lin and other members of the Lulin Observatory staff enabled me to get the images I wanted, while I analyzed the data and found the comet.”<\/p>\n
On Feb. 6, we’ll get the first opportunity to see the comet with unaided eyes: Lulin will pass through the fulcrum of the scales in the constellation Libra, the sign of partnership — or collaboration. On Feb. 16 it will pass the star, Spica, in the constellation Virgo — the sign of service. Spica is a star of first magnitude, which means that even city-dwellers can catch its light in the sky. Finally, on Feb. 24, Comet Lulin will arrive at its closest point (38 million miles from Earth) and come within a few degrees of Saturn, in the constellation Leo.<\/p>\n
Chinese astrology traditionally interprets comets as important omens of history-making events. Comets are neither good or ill-omened by themselves, but interpreted in the context of other phenomenon. Passing through the constellations of Libra, Virgo and Leo, we might consider this message from Lulin: through partnership we serve to rebuild our image of leadership. It’s about as good an omen you can get from a green-tailed beauty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This February the omens say you may meet with a green-tailed beauty. Comet Lulin is her name. From Feb. 6 until February 24 (when she passes closest to Earth) Comet Lulin will be visible to us on clear nights, without the aid of binoculars or telescopes. Comet Lulin was first discovered in 2007. Quanzhi Ye, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[119],"tags":[36,997,52,117,998],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10772"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10772\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}