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Astronomy Picture of the Day - The Images not Posted during the Government Shutdown - Finding Comet Lemmon
NASA ^ | 20 Oct, 2025 | Image Credit & Copyright: Petr Horalek / Institute of Physics in Opava

Posted on 12/05/2025 9:32:33 AM PST by MtnClimber

Explanation: Tonight, if you can see the stars of the Big Dipper, then you can find comet Lemmon in your evening sky. After sunset, look for the faint but extended comet above your northwestern horizon -- but below the handle of the famous celestial kitchen utensil of the north. It might be easier to see this visitor to the inner Solar System through your camera phone, which is better at picking up faint objects. Either way, look for a fuzzy green 'star' with a tail, though probably not so long a tail as in this impressive snapshot taken over Seč Lake in the Czech Republic two nights ago. Recent photographs of C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) often show a detailed and changing ion tail which extends farther than the eye can follow. This Sun-orbiting comet is now near its closest approach to Earth and will pass its closest to the Sun in early November.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

1 posted on 12/05/2025 9:32:33 AM PST by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

2 posted on 12/05/2025 9:32:54 AM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: 21stCenturion; 21twelve; 4everontheRight; A Navy Vet; A_perfect_lady; abb; AFB-XYZ; AFPhys; ...
Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

3 posted on 12/05/2025 9:33:27 AM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

I have an older iPhone that doesn’t work very well taking low light pictures.
Would binoculars or a spotting scope work?


4 posted on 12/05/2025 9:48:44 AM PST by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> --- )
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To: smokingfrog

Definitely binoculars


5 posted on 12/05/2025 9:54:34 AM PST by zeebee
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To: smokingfrog

This illustration is old. The current position is close to the sun (from our perspective) between Scorpius and Saggitarius. It is also dimming, so this one may be out of reach for casual observers.


6 posted on 12/05/2025 10:17:13 AM PST by cephalopod (First, kill all the judges (and then the lawyers).)
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To: MtnClimber

Lemon law applies if you don’t see it.


7 posted on 12/05/2025 11:38:35 AM PST by NavyShoe
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