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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tWow! This image of Comet C\/2025 A6 (Lemmon) was taken October 25 from Payson, Arizona. The photographer collected 45 minutes of exposure through his Celestron RASA telescope at f\/2, using an ASI2600MC camera. Through binoculars or a telescope, you won\u2019t see the colors he captured or the full length of the tail, but you will see the bright coma and some of the tail emanating from it.
Credit: Chris Schur\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Comet C\/2025 A6 (Lemmon), discovered on January 3, 2025, unexpectedly continued to brighten past its closest approach to Earth on October 21, currently maintaining an estimated 4th magnitude, though increasing lunar illumination impedes naked-eye detection.
\nThe comet is on an inbound trajectory towards its perihelion passage on November 8, after which the Sun’s gravitational influence is projected to reduce its orbital period from approximately 1,350 years to 1,150 years, delaying its next potential Earth visibility until around 3175.
\nFor optimal observation, viewers are recommended to use binoculars or telescopes approximately 90 minutes after sunset, facing northwest, employing Arcturus as an initial guide star to locate the comet within the far southern regions of Hercules.
\nRecent observations on October 28 indicated a visually fanned-out tail extending over 4 degrees, with the comet’s sustained brightening being a dynamic interplay between increasing solar energy absorption and increasing distance from Earth.<\/p>\n
Most comet-watchers thought that\u00a0Comet C\/2025 A6 (Lemmon)\u00a0would reach its brightest October 21 when it was closest to Earth. But it continued to brighten for several days past that date. And it still looks good. In fact, current estimates of its brightness put it\u00a0near\u00a04th magnitude, which would normally make it easy to spot for sharp-eyed observers. Unfortunately, with the Moon getting brighter each night, even from a dark site, you won\u2019t be able to see it with your naked eyes unless the comet has an outburst. That\u2019s where binoculars come in.<\/p>\n
Comet Lemmon is still on its inbound journey right now before it swings around the Sun and heads back out. So, it\u2019s getting brighter as it receives more solar energy, but it\u2019s also fading because it\u2019s moving away from Earth. We hope that the increase in energy more than makes up for the increasing distance, but we just don\u2019t know. That\u2019s why we have to keep watching it.<\/p>\n
Observe it<\/p>\n
First, find the time the Sun sets at your location. A quick Google search for, \u201cWhen is sunset at [location]\u201d will do it. Then, head out an hour and a half\u00a0later than your sunset time and\u00a0face northwest. Use the finder chart here to identify some of the visible stars, and then point binoculars toward the comet\u2019s location and try to see it.<\/p>\n
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This diagram shows the location of Comet C\/2025 A6 (Lemmon) on the evening of October 31, 2025. This view shows the western sky 90 minutes after sunrise for longitude 90\u00b0 west and latitude 40\u00b0 north. No bright stars are near the comet, so first find Arcturus (the brightest star, at lower right), and slowly scan to the upper left of it through binoculars. Start looking for Arcturus 30 or so minutes after sunset so it doesn\u2019t get too low.
Credit: M. Zastrow\/Stellarium<\/p>\n
Lemmon is currently passing in front of the\u00a0far southern\u00a0stars of the constellation\u00a0Hercules, near the borders of two other constellations, Serpens and Ophiuchus. That\u2019s a problem for people who don\u2019t know the sky because there aren\u2019t any bright stars near the comet. Most observers will target Arcturus (the brightest star in the constellation Bo\u00f6tes) and move to the upper left from that star.\u00a0But Arcturus sets long before the comet does, so start your hunt half an hour after sunset.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re using a telescope to observe it, start viewing Comet Lemmon with your lowest power eyepiece. Depending on the length of the tail, you might be able to see the whole comet. Then, step by step, increase the magnification and scan the comet\u2019s length for details. Can you see a single tail, or are there two? Are any parts of the tail brighter than others? Does the tail look disconnected at any point? Take your time.<\/p>\n
A personal note<\/p>\n
On Tuesday evening, October 28,\u00a0Astronomy\u2019s Editor Emeritus, Dave Eicher, and I observed Comet Lemmon from my home observatory. We viewed it through Oberwerk 100mm binoculars, which, with the eyepieces I inserted, provided a magnification of 40x and a field of view of 4.4\u00b0. The comet looked great, even with a one-day-before-First Quarter Moon in the sky and our having to look over the lights of Tucson, which lies west of my house.<\/p>\n
We both could see that, visually, the tail seemed to fan out more than on the images we\u2019d seen. Also, and surprisingly, the tail was visible across the binoculars\u2019 entire field of view, which meant we could see more than 4\u00b0 of its length. Of course we looked at other celestial sights, but it was worth setting up just for Comet Lemmon, which certainly did not disappoint.<\/p>\n
More details<\/p>\n
Comet Lemmon was discovered January 3, 2025, as part of the Mount Lemmon Survey, which uses a 60-inch telescope at Mt. Lemmon, Arizona (a scant 15.5 miles north of the author\u2019s home). The camera attached to the telescope\u2019s prime focus captures images that are 5\u00b0 square.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, the comet\u2019s current orbital period is approximately 1,350 years. But after its perihelion passage (its closest approach to the Sun) on November 8, our star\u2019s gravity will reduce that to 1,150 years. So, the next chance for earthbound observers to see this occasional visitor will be around the year 3175.<\/p>\n
So, take a few minutes in the evening and try and spot Comet Lemmon\u00a0\u2014\u00a0a ball of frozen gases currently speeding past Earth at 135,000 miles per hour (217,000 kilometers per hour).\u00a0Be persistent because\u00a0the Moon is getting larger and brighter each night, spreading more and more of its reflected sunlight through our atmosphere.\u00a0Who knows how bright it will still be after Full Moon, when we\u2019ll have some early evening darkness?\u00a0Now is the time to spot it. Good luck!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wow! This image of Comet C\/2025 A6 (Lemmon) was taken October 25 from Payson, Arizona. The photographer collected…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,2928,141,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-107059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-observing","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}