Yershan

This animation shows how Lulin swings pass the Earth. Taken by Guo Wei in downtown area of Guangzhou in the morning of Feb. 26

It has been cloudy since Feb. 26, meanwhile I spent nearly 12 hours each day on bed to make myself recover faster from bad cold, I'm feeling much better now. Over the next weekend I'll fly to Beijing and Tianjin, meeting friends, and giving a talk about Comet Lulin and the total solar eclipse at Peking University, I'll also attend the Vienna Philharmonic's performance at National Center for the Performing Arts on March 9 -- actually, this is the main reason I go to Beijing!

When being unable to see Lulin, a message from Liaoshan Shi draw my attention to some interesting but somehow strange remarks of comets (http://www.chinaufo.com/jplw/jplw37.htm). In 1997, some one had shot Comet Hale-Bopp and claimed he had used Qigong mechanism to "confirmed" there are poinsonous microzymes on Comet Hale-Bopp. "Saccharides are composed by C, H and O molecules, and astronomers had proved that there are C, H and O elements on the comet, so saccharides can be formed under the force of solar wind and produce microzymes." The author wrote, "On March 20, 1997, at 22:33, after taking photograph of Comet Hale-Bopp with my camera, I used Qigong to study the nuclie, I felt the nuclie like a heater and there are some molecules moving toward the tail. After that, the materials of the tail connected with my body, I felt bad and felt the energy of Comet Hale-Bopp is dark green and poisonous. After connected with the tail, my hands turned green, in order to prevent further poisoned, I 'repeated' the virus back to Comet Hale-Bopp many times, however I still got urinary tract infection..."

I have mentioned Liaoshan many times during my Lulin monitoring campaign here and I think you need an introduction of her -- Liaoshan is two years younger than me and she is now studying physics and optics in Sun Yat-sen University (the same university as me). She has a long-term interest on asteroids and comets, as well as deep sky observing and drawing, and she is the credit discoverer to some NEAT asteroids (possibly the youngest female discoverer over the world), and has help me do reductions for some Lulin data as well. She also has a very good sense of humor!

Liaoshan's sketch of Comet Lulin as seen in a 15-cm reflector on Feb. 27

I could not suppress my inclination to laugh anymore as the author went on, "base on my Qigong experiment, I confirmed that there are 'bacteria virus' on Comet Hale-Bopp indeed. At least, I think this is the truth I can get."

I'm not going to blame the author for such an interesting point of view since it gives me too much laughers. I don't recommend to laugh at different or ignorant views -- we should discuss, angue, or teach when the time comes. But sometimes, we have no choice but laugh. I agree that there are many secrets in cosmos, but I believe we should study them by observation and deduction, and these are what scientific research based on.

The astrologers also noted Lulin's visit to the inner solar system, but from an angle much better than the author above. Well, I'm not a fan of astrology. It may be good for entertainment ("foolish daughter" of astronomy, Kepler remarked), and actually a few serious works have been done in history, but I have seen too much ignorant talks and discussion from the so-called astrological fans about universe and stars. So after reading the funny article about Comet Hale-Bopp's virus, I decided to try to look for some fresh funny stuff, so I began Googling astrological news about Comet Lulin. I did not receive a bigger laugher but a few discussions appeared to be serious, it's not bad to learn the comet from another angle!

An Italian astrologer named Margherita Fiorello investigated the visit of Lulin seriously and wrote what her found on her blog (http://heavenastrolabe.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/about-the-comet-lulin/), after investigating the syzygy chart of the date I discovered it, she concluded the comet will "produce many damages" since it moves "against the order", but the areas under influence are likely to be Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The sentences and phrases she used remind me the astrological teacher appeared in J. K. Rowling's book "Harry Potter". Meanwhile, another astrologer named Anton Grigoryev investigated from ancient book full of Greek-alike characters without a clear conclution (http://www.antonblog.net/astrology/mundane-astrology/comet-lulin/).

The two astrologers seems to know the sky quite well, at least as good as an experienced amatuer astronomer. Other astrology fans try to find "freak" events to support astrological theories -- one noted a "Gamma Ray burst in Virgo", well this seems to be quite profesional but strikes nothing; while another noted that at the day before Comet Lulin's closest approach to the Earth, the US stock market hit its lowest point since 1997! However I later learnt the Dow Jones Index coutinuously went down after Lulin's approach... Lulin is not that bad, right?

A even more interesting viewpoint is given by Aluna Joy Yaxk'in says we have been "experiencing a lot of interesting energy shifts" since Lulin is swinging pass the Earth. "Physically we are having stomach aches, nausea, and to sensitive ones, even a sense of your entire body being hit by a fast-moving truck.If you are feeling these physical symptoms, it means your spiritual, emotional and physical bodies are working to realign to the new energies."

The author continues, "This comet will be passing close to the Earth just as we enter portal and core days in the Maya calendar... according to Maya Cosmology, March 20, 2009, is potentially the most powerful and transforming event that we will have ever experienced in recorded history."

"Be aware," after reading this article, Liaoshan remind me, "it's well possible that your bad cold being an excellent example for astrologers that comets are indeed bringing disasters to our human beings!" "Well, don't worry that much," I replied, "at least we now know that greenish Lulin did not make those who had taken photo of her get urinary tract infection -- it's safe!"

By the way, I plan to have my hair cut before my departure to Beijing -- let's see if Lulin will cut her tail as well! ("You should have done that when Lulin cut her tail around Feb. 7!" Liaoshan remarks)