Comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon is getting brighter and brighter and whether you have a telescope, binoculars or just your eyes, here’s how you can see it.
A year ago, the Washington DC area was fascinated by Comet A3 gracing our skies.
We now have another comet, C/2025 A6 Lemmon, which may become bright enough to be visible to the naked eye in the coming days. It’s been a beautiful view through telescope and/or binoculars since its discovery in January, and in recent weeks it has gotten even better.
Comets are debris from the formation of our solar system and they are constantly lurking in the solar system at all times.
As NASA explains:
“Every comet has a frozen part, called a core, often a few kilometers in diameter. The core contains chunks of ice, frozen gas with bits of dust embedded in it. A comet heats up as it approaches the Sun and develops an atmosphere, or coma. The heat from the Sun causes the comet’s ices to turn into gas, causing the coma to grow larger. The coma can extend to areas hundreds of thousands of kilometers. Pressure from sunlight and high-speed solar particles (solar wind) can blow dust and coma gas away from the Sun, sometimes forming a long, bright tail. Comets actually have two tails: a dust tail and an ion (gas) tail.
It’s been five years since the Northern Hemisphere was able to observe a truly bright and magnificent comet, Comet NEOWISE.
Skywatchers can now start looking for Lemmon about 90 minutes before dawn and starting Thursday it could be visible in dark skies before dawn and after sunset. Refer to star maps on the EarthSky website to help you find the comet.
Try to find the darkest skies possible before dawn and after dark after sunset, as well as beautiful views of the horizon, free of trees and tall buildings.
Check the weather forecast for clear to partly cloudy skies, which will hopefully give us a chance to see Comet Lemmon.
If the predictions hold true (comets are notoriously difficult to predict their behavior, just like cats), the comet will become brighter and easier to see in the coming days of October and even perhaps November.
If you have a telescope or binoculars, I highly recommend using them to improve your eyesight and see some details of the comet, Comet Lemmon’s core and tail.
Use your smartphone or camera to photograph Comet Lemmon using the appropriate exposure and image composition. It is best to use a tripod to take an image and see the result, make any necessary corrections, then take another photo.
And guess what?
Two other comets attract our attention: the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, only the third object of this type ever seen so far, and the comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN).
As for 3I/ATLAS, it will probably remain visible only through a telescope, or perhaps binoculars; while C/2025 R2 (SWAN) brightens but is a difficult observation for Northern Hemisphere observers due to its low altitude in the west after dark.
Comet SWAN will rise higher in the sky every day. Check out this link for daily star charts.
And the WTOP highlights the most remarkable celestial sites each month in the article “What’s happening in the sky?” »
Good luck and clear skies!
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