Backward green comet, one-time only appearance

If you're like me and interested in outer space, you'll probably want to take the chance to see a unique occurrence in the night sky over the next few days.

The comet Lulin is making its one and only appearance in the nighttime sky. What makes Lulin really interesting is that it's flying “backwards” - most things in our solar system orbit the Sun in a counterclockwise direction, Lulin is traveling clockwise, making it look like it’s moving through the sky tail-first, it's also unusual since its tail has a greenish tint, something rare for comets.

Lulin is traveling so fast that the boost in speed it gets from whipping past the Sun will fling it out of the solar system into deep space, meaning this will be its one and only trip past Earth.

The best chance to see Lulin is to look to the southern sky about 1/3 of the way up from the horizon just before dawn on Monday, it will be near Saturn (which will look like a bright star in the sky), it may be visible to the naked eye, but binoculars are a better bet. Lulin is named for the Chinese teenager who first discovered it two years ago.