Comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon (Oct 11, 18, & 25)

Location Date Time Weather Equipment:  

Near Fredericton, NB, Canada - October 11, 2025 1930-2030 - Cool, no wind, hazy, 12C, and 94% humidity.   Canadian Telescopes 80 ed/apo with Canon Rebel attached at prime focus.  15x70 binos, images processed with PhotoShop

Prince of Wales, NB, Canada - October 18, 2025 1900-2030 - Air got cooler, ground fog started to form after 2000hrs, no wind, clear, 10C.  Binoculars, Canon Rebel with 18-55mm and 75-300mm lenses. Images processed with photoshop.

Saints Rest Beach, NB, Canada - October 25, 2025 1900-2010 - Cloud and haze moved in around 1930, affecting overall viewing conditions, cool, 9C. Clouds along horizon covered moon many times.  Haze dimmed brighter stars, and made the naked eye comet pop in and out of view. Some breeze to no breeze.

Objective:  To observe two comets, Comet Lemmon in the north-western sky and Comet C/2025 R2 Swan in the south-western sky just after sundown.  Sometime during the week of Oct 11 to Oct 18, a few reports were made that Comet Lemmon is visible naked eye, barely.

Report For Oct 11:  

• I was able to capture and view Comet Lemmon in binos as it was going down behind trees, also as it was starting to get dark enough to observe it. It was bright enough to clearly see in camera viewscreen, and was easy to find in binos.  Huge, greenish, with a bright, whitish central region.  A hint of a big wedge like tail was just barely visible.  Not visible to naked eye, in my experience.

• No moon in the sky made for very dark skies, but hazy, high humidity.
• Searched for Comet Swan, but it had gone down behind trees by the time I was able to search for it.
• Arcturus was behind trees by the time it started getting dark.

Arcturus 

Report for Oct 18:

• Ed and I arrived at observing area around 7pm and the sun was down but there was still lots of light.  Arcturus popped out shortly afterwards, but it took a long 30 mins for the twilight to diminish enough for comet Lemmon to appear.
• We both had nice views of Comet Lemmon through binos.  Noting the big, bright nucleus with bright whitish central region and greenish outer layer.  A large, thick tail sweeping to the right, aprox a degree long.  Around 8pm we realized we could see the Comet naked eye!  We estimate the comet to be 5th magnitude.  What a beautiful sight!

• We searched the southern sky under Aquila and above Sagittarius for Comet C/2025 R2 Swan to no avail.  Lots of deep sky objects, in Sagittarius, including seven globular clusters, which closely resemble comets in binos.  I confirmed one such cluster with an image.  We thought it was a comet while scanning for comet Swan.  We were not able to confirm a sighting of this comet, even after a thorough scanning by both of us of that region with binos.  This comet was reported to be mag 6.4.

Report for October 25 from Saints Rest Beach

• Shortly after dark, the comet became visible in binoculars. It has a bright central region, and is huge. Clearly stands out as a comet. Spectacular with tail that spanned 40% of binos field of view, Ed thought and I agree.  It's a long tail that sweeps up and to the left.  Tail is visible naked eye and in images there's some kind of disturbance going on with it.

Comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon

• In the south, south, western sky, there was a beautifl thin crescent moon that periodically was covered by a thin band of dark clouds.  The southern sky had Sagittarius hanging just over the Bay of Fundy.  Comet c/2025 R2 Swan was in this region of sky but didnt show up in binos or in images of this area of sky.  Many other observers from the Saint John Astronomy Club were there, making it a very enjoyable experience.

Sagittarius sitting low in the sky as a thin cresent moon tries to peek out from behind clouds.

Setting Crescent Moon next to a transmission tower.

Observing Report August 22, 2025

Location:  Mactaquac Provincial Park, NB, Canada

Date Time:  2200-0030hrs August 22, 2025

Weather:  Humid, hazy, dew, some moths, no wind to some breeze, a cool 15C and 80% humidity.

Equipment:  Canadian telescopes 80 ed/apo with canon rebel camera attached at prime focus.  Images processed with PhotoShop.

Attendance:  Other campers and myself.  About five came to view through telescope.

Objective:  To observe some of the brighter deep sky objects that are visible from this location and to share viewing with other campers.

Report:

• New Moon was at approximately 0300hrs on this night.  Very dark skies but a haziness caused M31 to be somewhat difficult to find naked eye.
• Showed my camping neighbors around the sky.  Showed M31, M13 and Albireo through big telescope.  Explained about how to use Ursa Major as a guide to find Arcturus and Polaris.  Also, we marveled at the Milky Way which stretched across the entire sky, straight overhead, from the south to the North East into Cassiopeia.
• Viewed and imaged M31 The Andromeda Galaxy.  M110 also popped out in the image, which was unexpected. Dust lanes can also be seen.

• During the evening I decided to image each one of the main square asterism stars in the great square of Pegasus.  Perhaps surprisingly Alpheratz, the brightest star of the square isn't a star of the constellation Pegasus, but the brightest star of the constellation Andromeda.

Alpheratz

Algenib

Markab

Scheat

• While looking at Cassiopeia I thought I would try to capture M103. It is an open star cluster which is near Ruchbah, one of the 'W' asterism stars of Cassiopeia.  The cluster does not appear to show in this image, even after processing to bring out more detail.

Ruchbah

• Around midnight, a bright star rose from behind a big tree in the East.  It was Saturn!  The almost edge on view of the rings was surprising to me.  Spectacular in the big telescope field of view and at least two moons were clearly visible around the gas giant, with maybe more. I find it difficult to tell some of Saturn's moons apart from background stars, as they dont line up and appear quite far away from the planet.  For the image and video, my cellphone was attached to the 32mm eyepiece with an adapter.

Screenshot of Saturn through 8" Meade LX 200

• The last thing I did before stopping for the night, around 0030hrs was to image the Milky Way in the Southern sky, rising from the treeline.  The Milky Way was spectacular all evening.  When imaging zoomed out images without a Moon or very bright planet like Jupiter or Venus, I find it very difficult to focus the camera.  This is why some of the zoomed out images are not in very good focus.  Otherwise, a great night of observing!

The Milky Way.

Comet C/2025 K1 Atlas

Location:  From a driveway near Fredericton, NB, Canada

Date Time:  Aug 16, 2025 2000-0100hrs

Weather: Mostly hazy with passing see-through clouds, this greatly affected images and visual observing, especially deep sky objects and the comet.  At times breezy, and many mosquitos, moths and other bugs, 20C/ humidity 60%. A little dew.  We have been experiencing a drought. 

Attendance:  Edward M and myself.

Equipment:  Meade 8" LX 200 with focal reducer and 32mm eyepiece for visual observing.  Canadian Telescopes 80 ED/APO with Canon Rebel T3 attached for imaging.  Images processed on Photo Shop. 

Objective:  To do some visual observing around the Summer Triangle and to attempt to image a newly discovered comet, C/2025 K1 Atlas, which was reported to be near one of the main asterism stars in Ophiuchus.

Report:

• Many of the deep sky objects & comet that I tried to locate and view/image were greatly affected by the see-through haze & clouds.  Sometimes M31 was visible with unaided eye, but sometimes it wasn't.  Same goes for Albireo and many of the comet images. One image it's there, in another it isn't. Camera/telescope focus issues were also a factor. When the reddish orange, waning crescent Moon began to rise through the trees after midnight, it was half covered in clouds.
• As we were observing, we seen many meteors. Over a dozen between us.  Faint, very fast moving streaking pin pricks of light.  I observed two at the same time almost moving at right angles to each other under Cassiopeia (which was in the NE sky), while trying to locate M31 with unaided eye.  No Perseids were seen.  No smoke trails seen.  All were very fast, faint, in all parts of the sky moving in seemingly different directions,
• We observed a train of satellites moving in the south-east direction.
• Observed visually, with big telescope, Albireo(Double Star), M13(Hercules Cluster), M31(Andromeda Galaxy) and made an unsuccessful attempt to view M57(The Ring Nebula).  M31 & M13 were greatly affected by hazy conditions, but were visible.  The double star was not affected.

The Hercules Cluster (M13)

The Ring Nebula (M57) halfway between brighter Sulafat & fainter Sheliak.

• About halfway through the observing session, I made my first attempt at imaging the recently discovered comet, C/2025 K1 Atlas, which was nicely placed high up in the south-western sky.  Located very conveniently for imaging, unlike most of the other targets, which were nearly straight over-head.  This comet was reported to be near a brightish star in Ophiuchus, 11.9 magnitude, which is very close to the limit of my capabilities to image.  This means it's very faint, too faint to see in my 8" telescope, even under perfect seeing conditions.

Comet is to the right of the bright star, near center of image.

• Over the course of the evening of imaging and observing, many targets were almost directly over-head, I had issues keeping the camera focused. The incline of the telescope caused this. I used a number of stars including Dubhe in Ursa Major as a bright star to focus on.

Dubhe.  Glow surrounding this star in the image indicates the haziness of the sky conditions.

Observing Report for June 21/22, 2025

Location:  Fredericton, NB, Canada

Date Time:  June 21, 2025 2130-0300hrs

Weather: It was mostly clear, then a few passing clouds, to mostly cloudy and ground fog by 3am. Cool, no wind, very humid, some dew, 11C and 100% humidity.  Mosquitos, no see-ums, blackflies and big moths were a major factor until after 0130am.  After that they weren't much of a problem.

Equipment:  Canon Rebel T3 attached to an 80 ed/apo.  Images processed with PhotoShop.

Objective:  To view and image Mercury in the evening and a thin waning crescent moon with Venus after 3am.

Report: 

• My location does not give a good, low view of the horizon, in any direction, and I couldn't see to the south.  I could not see Mercury in the evening or the moon at 3am, probably because it hadn't risen yet.  The clouds and fog at 3am were thin enough that I thought I would see it through the clouds, but it had not risen by 3am. Thick clouds and fog took over around 3am, ending observing.
• Viewed and imaged stars and messier objects around the Ursa Major.  Only one image turned out well, M81 & M82, galaxies to the right of the bowl of the big dipper.  I also imaged Dubhe, M108 and M97, but the messier objects were too faint to make good images and Dubhe just didn't turn out well.

M81 & M82, single shot, 30s, ISO 1600.

• As I was waiting for the Moon and Venus to rise, I imaged Ruchbah also known as Delta Cassiopeia, one of the bright asterism stars.  Ruchbah is from an Arabic word Rukbah meaning "knee", referring to Queen Cassiopeia, the mythical figure for which the constellation is named.

Ruchbah, single shot, 30s, ISO 1600.

• Also of note:  There is a noticeable increase in satellites flying overhead in the night sky, imo.

Comet Swan 25F Search

Location:  Prince of Wales, NB, Canada

Date Time:  April 10, 2025 0430-0700hrs

Weather:  Light breeze, mostly clear, light ground fog, hazy, very cold -4C with -8C windchill reported, and humidity 99%.

Equipment:  Binoculars, cellphone camera, and Canon Rebel with 75-300 & 18-55mm lens.

Objective:  To view and image a newly discovered comet C/2025 F2 Swan which is low in the pre dawn sky, in Pegasus near Alpheratz.

Report:

• A Very bright, Waxing Gibbous 94% illuminated Moon in the mid high western sky shone like a spotlight, putting clear shadows on the ground.  Not good for faint comet finding.
• It took a while to find a place where I could see low on the NE horizon, where Pegasus was rising.  When I found a clear place to see Pegasus, I scanned around Alpheratz with binos and thought I seen a fuzzball, but when I took long exposure images images of that area of sky with camera, the comet didn't pop out in images.  After processing, the comet still didn't show up.  Might have not been looking in right place or the comet isn't bright enough at this time.  I feel as though I was looking in the right area, though.  There's plenty of images and maps available, and the comet being close Alpheratz makes it much easier to locate.
• Shortly after first light at about 0530, a bright star appeared on the horizon that I thought was a powerline tower light. Coincidently, Venus rose and was sitting atop a tower for a while. I realized it wasn't a powerline tower light when it began to slowly rise.  It was Venus.  

Looking for Pegasus

Found it but not the comet

Venus!  Sagittarius! 

Mars, Moon & Jupiter (Updated)

 Location:  Lower Westside, Saint John, NB, Canada

Date Time:  April 2, 2025 2100-2130hrs

Weather:  Cool, -0.5C, 39%, no wind, hazy, but mostly clear except for paper plant smoke blowing south-westward across western horizon.

Attendance:  Benson and Myself.

Equipment:  Canon Rebel with 18-55 & 75-300mm lens.

Objective: Benson and I to observe Jupiter and the Moon.

Report:

• As I was setting up tripod, Benson noticed a deer nearby.
• The Moon and Jupiter were high in the western sky, less than 5 degrees apart.

Moon & Jupiter.

Facing West, Sirius, Orion and Jupiter.

Waxing crescent 28% illuminated.

• Mars was next to Pollux and Castor in Gemini.

Procyon lower left
Beehive Cluster upper left
Mars next to Pollux, upper center left.

• From Richard Hinckley Allen's "Star Names Their Meaning and Lore"---- Procyon "Alpha, Binary, 0.4 and 13, yellowish white and yellow."  "Euphratean scholars identify it with the Kakkab Paldara Pallika, or Palura of the cylinders, the Star of the Crossing of the Water-Dog, a title evidently given with some reference to the River of Heaven, the adjacent Milky Way;  and Hommel says that it was the Kak-shisha which the majority of scholars apply to Sirius."  Further research leads me to think this means the star which proceeds Sirius.  An interesting name for a star that lies in an area of sky rich with amazing constellations and bright stars like Orion, Sirius and the Gemini Twins. An easy star to over-look.

Jamaica Trip 2025

 Location:  Resort Montego Bay, Jamaica

Date Time:  February 23-27, 2025

Weather:  Evening weather was 27C and very humid, mostly clear.  Early morning, before dawn weather was 25C, very humid and mostly cloudy.  South western sky, where Southern Cross was in the mornings, stayed cloudy for all mornings I was there.

Equipment:  Cellphone camera & binoculars.

Report:

• On the first evening  I could see the second brightest star in the sky, Alpha Carinae or Canopus.  According to Richard Hinckley Allen in "Star Names, Their Lore and Meaning" Alpha Carine, -0.4, white.  Paraphrasing, Canopus is Arabic for The Rudder.  "The slackened rudder has been placed beneath The hind-feet of the Dog."
• Canopus appeared very bright, very low, directly south, far below and to the left of Sirius, which is the brightest star in the sky.  Orion was very high in the western sky, almost over-head
•  While attempting to view Omega Centauri and The Southern Cross, both in the south western, predawn sky.  This area of sky was covered by cloud every early morning I was there.  It actually rained most nights.  On two occasions I did observe Alpha Centauri, the third brightest star in the sky, and Beta Centauri, very, low in the southern sky, just to the left of the wall of clouds.
• Again, according to RHA in his "Star Names, Their Lore and Meaning" Alpha Centauri, Binary, 0.2 and 1.5, white and yellowish.  "Baily's edition of Ulug Beg's catalogue gives this as Rigil Kentaurus, from Al Rigil al Kentaurus, the Centaur's Foot ..."
• The Big Dipper goes below the northern horizon from here, but also comes