A delicate, wispy tail streams from Comet Lemmon's bright coma in this image captured at 8:00 p.m. MDT on Oct. 25, 2025. This view is a stack of five 60-second exposures, taken with a RASA 11 telescope and a ZWO ASI6200 camera. Credit: Allen Hwang, taken from Deming, New Mexico.
Key Takeaways:
Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon), discovered on January 3, 2025, by the Mount Lemmon Survey, presented an extended period of visibility in Fall 2025.
The comet unexpectedly continued to brighten for several days beyond its predicted peak on October 21, offering prolonged opportunities for observation and astrophotography.
This appearance constituted a rare celestial event, as Comet Lemmon is not anticipated to return to Earth's vicinity until the year 3175.
The article features a collection of astrophotographs from various global locations, documenting Comet Lemmon's distinct features, including its coma and tail, and occasionally illustrating contextual elements such as satellite trails.
Discovered Jan. 3, 2025, by the 60-inch telescope at the Mount Lemmon Survey near Tucson, Arizona, Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) put on a spectacular show this fall. Plus, the comet had a surprise for observers: While most believed it would reach peak brightness on October 21, Lemmon defied expectations and continued to brighten for several more days.
This offered astrophotographers an extended window to capture the target — a truly once-in-a-lifetime event, as Lemmon won’t return to Earth’s skies until 3175.
Many of our readers were able to capture stunning images of this rare visitor. Here are some of our favorites.
Comet Lemmon’s coma and tail are revealed in extraordinary detail in this image, captured over 100 minutes in the early morning hours of October 9, 2025. The image is a stack of 60-second exposures taken through an Askar Apo 120 telescope with a ZWO ASI 2600 MC camera. Credit: Luigi La Bella, taken from Melilli, Italy.Comet Lemmon displays its distinct green coma and a faint, broad tail against a field of stars. This image was captured on Oct. 18, 2025, and is the result of one hour of total integration (60 stacked 60-second exposures) taken with a Nikon 400mm f/2.8 lens and a ZWO ASI 2600MC DUO camera. Credit: Alessandro Carrozzi, taken from Monchio, near Modena, Italy.Comet Lemmon sits low over a wilderness landscape, its light dimmed by the atmosphere, in this single 30-second exposure taken Oct. 24, 2025. The image also captures a bright, naturally occurring airglow. The photographer intentionally left the numerous straight lines — satellite trails — unedited to illustrate the growing problem of light pollution from space. He used a Canon 6D camera, a 40mm f/1.4 lens (at f/1.8), and a mechanical tracker for the 30-second exposure at ISO 1600. Credit: Barry Burgess, taken from Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, Canada.Comet Lemmon shines through thin clouds over a Sicilian building just after sunset on Oct. 26, 2025. This view was created by stacking 185 individual 1.6-second exposures, all taken from a fixed tripod with a Canon EOS R5 mirrorless camera and a 105mm lens set to f/2.0 and ISO 6400. Credit: Gianni Tumino, taken from Ragusa, Sicily, Italy.A delicate, wispy tail streams from Comet Lemmon’s bright coma in this image captured at 8:00 p.m. MDT on Oct. 25, 2025. This view is a stack of five 60-second exposures, taken with a RASA 11 telescope and a ZWO ASI6200 camera. Credit: Allen Hwang, taken from Deming, New Mexico.Comet Lemmon hangs in the constellation Ophiuchus over the Rivash Mountains in this image, created from an Oct. 26, 2025, timelapse. To capture the scene, the imager stacked 20 sky exposures of 30 seconds each and 5 land exposures of 30 seconds each, all taken with a Canon EOS R6 camera and a 135mm Samyang lens. Credit: Hassan Abdollahabadi, taken from Chelpo Village, Rivash, Iran.Comet Lemmon sits in the sky just above the historic Church of Santa Maria in Castello, a Romanesque building consecrated in 1208. This composite image, captured Oct. 18 at 7:50 p.m. local time, was created by blending 20 untracked 13-second exposures of the sky with two separate exposures for the illuminated church, all taken with a Nikon Z9 camera and a 24–70mm lens. Credit: Marco Meniero, taken from Tarquinia, Italy.This unique composite image illustrates the evolution of Comet Lemmon’s tail and its trajectory over 12 different nights, from Sept. 25 to Oct. 14, 2025. The images, all captured with the camera at the same orientation, show the tail’s apparent angle changing as the comet neared its closest approach to Earth. Each observation consists of stacked LRGB exposures taken with an Askar FRA600 telescope and a ZWO ASI2600MM Pro camera. Credit: Julien De Winter and Victor Sabet, taken remotely from Belgium at Starfront Observatories, Texas.Comet Lemmon’s bright nucleus and extended tail rise above the dark volcanic hills of the Black Desert against the morning twilight on Sept. 26, 2025. This composite image was created by stacking twenty 30-second exposures and twenty 60-second exposures of the comet, blended with a single 30-second exposure for the foreground. The photographer used a RedCat 51 refractor and a modified Nikon Z6 camera at ISO 2500. Credit: Osama Fathi, taken from the Black Desert, Egypt.This stunning close-up of Comet Lemmon was captured on Oct. 24, 2025. The image is a stack of 15 three-minute exposures, taken using a William Optics Fluorostar 91 telescope and an ASI 2600MC camera on an AM5N mount. Credit: Larry Hubble, taken from the “Two Trees Observation Area” near Sedona, Arizona.In this creative ‘astro-landscape’ taken on Oct. 24, 2025, the photographer captures himself at work imaging Comet Lemmon under the dark skies of northern Arizona. The comet and sky were captured with 78 stacked 30-second tracked exposures (Canon 6DM2, 105mm lens), while the foreground and photographer were blended from blue hour exposures taken with both the Canon camera and a drone. Credit: Greg Meyer, taken north of Ash Fork, Arizona.
