ScienceDownEast | ScienceDownEast Astrophotography | S30-Pro | Comet C/2025 R3
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Comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) is a long-period comet discovered on September 8, 2025 by Yudish Ramanjooloo using the Pan-STARRS2 1.8-meter telescope on HaleakalÄ, Hawaii, when it appeared as a faint, roughly 19th-20th magnitude object in Andromeda some 3.6 AU from the Sun. It reached perihelion on April 19, 2026. Preliminary orbital calculations suggest its path may be only barely bound, or even hyperbolic, meaning this could be its only pass through the inner solar system before it is flung back into interstellar space. Likely an ancient body dislodged from the outer solar system's Oort Cloud, it drew some media speculation as a possible âgreat comet,â though its actual peak brightness remained modest. As with most comets, imagers should expect a diffuse coma and faint ion/dust tails that shift night to night, best captured with tracked, stacked exposures.
[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2025_R3_(PanSTARRS); Space.com; British Astronomical Association]
Total image time was 15 minutes.
Comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) is a long-period comet discovered on September 8, 2025 by Yudish Ramanjooloo using the Pan-STARRS2 1.8-meter telescope on HaleakalÄ, Hawaii, when it appeared as a faint, roughly 19th-20th magnitude object in Andromeda some 3.6 AU from the Sun. It reached perihelion on April 19, 2026. Preliminary orbital calculations suggest its path may be only barely bound, or even hyperbolic, meaning this could be its only pass through the inner solar system before it is flung back into interstellar space. Likely an ancient body dislodged from the outer solar system's Oort Cloud, it drew some media speculation as a possible âgreat comet,â though its actual peak brightness remained modest. As with most comets, imagers should expect a diffuse coma and faint ion/dust tails that shift night to night, best captured with tracked, stacked exposures.
[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2025_R3_(PanSTARRS); Space.com; British Astronomical Association]
Total image time was 15 minutes.
| Moon Phase | New Moon | ||||||
| Camera | Seestar S30 Pro (4K Sony IMX585 sensor) | ||||||
| Optics | 160 mm focal length, f/5.3, 30 mm aperture (APO quadruplet) | ||||||
| Filter | IRCUT | ||||||
| Binning | 1x1 | ||||||
| Date | 2026-04-18 | ||||||
| PixInsight Processing |
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