Orwell Astronomical Society (Ipswich)
Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS), 12-14 April 2026
Comet C/2025 R3 was discovered by the PanSTARRS 1.8-meter survey telescope in Hawaii on 08 September 2025 at around magnitude 20. By mid-April 2026, the comet had brightened and become visible in binoculars in the pre-dawn sky near the Square of Pegasus.
Image captured with a Seestar S30. Ninety 10 second exposures.
Clear weather on 14 April provided a good opportunity to look for C/2025 R3 in the early hours. It was too low down for my main telescope, so I used portable equipment instead, viewing from the front garden through gaps in the skyline. It was not misty as such but everything had a cold, damp feel to it.
I could not, for certain, see the comet in binoculars.
Below, the upper image shows the comet as soon as it cleared the house next door! The tail is not particularly prominent in my suburban sky: adding more exposures taken in the dawn sky did not improve the image. The lower image is an almost identical view, but with sharper detail, obtained by using a lens with longer focal length.
Louise Manning, Nigel Evans