Lulin encounters the Eskimo

Popped down to the observatory tonight as the weather was virtually promised to be clear. I had to walk past a load of kids getting up to dodgy things in the village hall car park as they had parked in the way of the gate to the observatory field. I don't mind 'club' music but there was some boring but extremely loud, monotonous, repetitive rave music coming from the hall where they were all gathered outside, smoking. Still, they were no bother, the moon was out of the sky, the floodlights weren't on - the only problem was the large amount of passing cloud the weathermen hadn't predicted again - the liars! (about 5 'octas' worth, I believe). I could see the constellation Gemini, which is where the comet Lulin was currently sailing as it was quite near overhead. The scope worked fine, I got lucky with several clear patches and captured 6x30second pics of the comet, but then I realised the comet was very near the Eskimo or Clown nebula. I squeezed both into one camera field at a push and got 3 shots - and thought this was much more worthy of a blog entry. The nebula is slightly overexposed, but it was a balancing act to process. I've included the Lulin shot also, processed to see the tail. I put the telescope to sleep (as we say) and got straight out and straight home in good time for bed for once (not that I have gone to bed, I am an astronomer after all).