Comet C/2007 N3, commonly called Lulin, was discovered on July 11, 2007 by nineteen year old Ye Quanzhi. The common name comes from the Lulin Observatory in Taiwan, where Ye Quanzhi worked.

Lulin is a non-periodic comet, meaning it will never return to our solar system. This photo was taken on March 4, 2009, about 8 days after Lulin's closest approach to Earth. On that night Lulin was about 50 million miles away and receding quickly, no longer visible to the naked eye.

The beautiful blue-green color of Lulin is shared by many comets. It comes from a mixture of cyanogen gas and diatomic carbon in the comet's atmosphere.

This image was produced from 39 frames, each lasting 150 seconds, taken with my Canon Digital Rebel XT camera at the prime focus of my 8 inch f/4.9 newtonian reflector telescope. The 39 frames were calibrated, registered and combined using Iris software.