You’ve probably seen quite a bit about C/2025 A6, also known as Comet Lemmon, floating around on Facebook in recent days. It has been extremely difficult to spot here across North Georgia, but tonight will likely turn out to be the best chance to see it.
Comet Lemmon was discovered on January 3rd of this year. It will reach its closest approach to the sun early next month on November 8th at a distance 0.53AU, or about half the distance from Earth to the Sun. It made its closest approach to our planet on October 21st. It has been gradually brightening, but has remained very low in the northwest sky after dark. Currently, Lemmon sets around 9:30PM giving a fairly short window to see it. Recently, former astronomy professor at the University of North Georgia Dr. Joseph Jones got outside and saw it from his yard. He shared these photos with us showing what the comet looked like from his cell phone.
Image: Dr. Joseph Jones
The comet has since moved a bit to the left from our viewpoint and is now visible just to the left of the constellation Boötes. It will peak in brightness around 4th magnitude over the next couple of days, but incoming clouds will hamper viewing from Friday onward.
Tonight, you’ll find comet Lemmon in the west around 45 minutes to an hour after sunset. Be sure you have a fairly low horizon or gap in the trees, because the comet is not very high. It is not visible to the naked eye except in extremely dark locations. Binoculars or a small telescope make the comet very easy to find, though. For this evening, it will also be conveniently located just to the left of the bright star Izar, which you can find by roughly following the last two stars of the Big Dipper’s handle.
Over the coming nights, the comet will begin to gradually fade as it continues to move west. It will get slightly higher through late month, before dropping and eventually becoming invisible to us again in November.
This is the best comet of the year, so be sure to head out and enjoy it!
