Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) He is already giving a show in the morning skies of early October and his brightness is intended to increase As we get closer to Perigeo of 21 October. The latest estimates provide that comet has high chances of becoming visible to the naked eye also from Italy towards the end of the month, with one Estimated magnitude between 2.5 and 4. Discovered on January 3, 2025 by the Mount Lemmon Observatory (hence the name), when it was still at 4.5 astronomical units from the sun, the comet defeated the non -optimistic forecasts of the beginning of the year, which ranking as an insignificant object of magnitude 10. The month of October will represent theThe only opportunity in our life to observe itsince it has a very long period of Ben 1350 years.
What we know about the comet lemmon: the characteristics
Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) was discovered by the Mount Lemmon Observatory on January 3, 2025, as part of the Mount Lemmon Survey a project intended to discover objects Near-Earththat is, those whose orbit intersects that of our planet. To its discovery, the comet was about 670 million km from the sun, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
The first visibility forecasts suggested that the comet would not be particularly brilliant. However, after going in conjunction with the sun at the beginning of July, when the comet reappeared, he showed a Increase in brightness which brought astronomers over the months of July and August to review the entertainment estimates of the comet. Thus passed from a expected magnitude of 10 to one between 2.5 and 4that is, a thousand times brighter.
As our star approaching, starting from September, the comet has started to show the Classic signs of commercial activity. The latter consist in the formation of a greenish hairan atmosphere that surrounds the core for the core whose color is due to the ionization of carbon and nitrogen compounds, and the classic tailwhich instead is generated by the “breath” of the solar wind on the powders and ice of the hair.
The comet will reach the minimal distance from the earth The 21 October 2025when it is found to 90 million km from our planet and 42 ° of elongation from the sun. The perihelionthat is, the point of maximum proximity to the sun is expected for theNovember 8thwhen it will move on to 79 million km from our star. The observations conducted by its discovery have made it possible to determine the period and trajectory of this comet. It is an object with a period very long, about 1350 yearswhich will be reduced to about 1150 after the passage to Perdielio of November 8. His orbit is strongly inclined with respect to the eclitic plan (i.e. the plan in which the Earth’s orbit lies). Currently the comet is located north of the Eclitic plan, at a corner distance of 60 ° from the sun, which makes the observations very favorable from our latitudes. It will reach the northernmost point compared to the ecliptic in the middle of the month and then ritual “below” of this plan towards the end of November.
Visibility forecasts for October
Currently, the comet is visible with a good binoculars in East/North-East Management between the constellation of the major bear and that of the lynx. Comet It rises around 1: 30 at night And it is identifiable at about 30 ° to the left of Jupiter. With the advance of the month, the morning visibility window will be decreasingwhile on the contrary, that of post-tramont visibility will be increasing. Near the maximum proximity to the land of October 21, the comet will have hoped to reach one magnitude of 2.5-4 and can be spotted ad Naked eye from dark skies in the west/north-west directionremaining three hours above the horizon. To maximize the observational hours, we advise you to go to places whose east and west horizons are as mackerel as possible.
We remind you that for comets, so for other extensive objects, to have a magnitude below the conventional threshold of observability with the naked eye (about magnitude 6) does not necessarily imply that it can actually be seen without the help of tools: in fact the comets are not objects that appear point in the sky, like the stars, but but Extended objectstherefore their brightness is “spread” over the entire area it occupies in the sky. This means that a 2.5 magnitude, which makes a star visible with a naked eye even from a city sky, may not make a comet equally visible. So do not think that it is enough to aim your smartphone towards the direction of the comet to take a Detailed photo of the object. To obtain an image only remotely similar to the one above, it will be it is necessary to have a telescope to connect a camera to able to resume long exposure images.
