Astronomer Gianluca Masi captured spectacular footage of a glowing meteor trail wrapping around the colossal tail of Comet Lemmon on Oct. 24, as the wandering solar system body approached the constellation Serpens Caput in Earth's sky.

The bright meteor tore through the night shortly before Masi snapped a two-minute exposure of Comet Lemmon with an astrographic camera operated by the Virtual Telescope Project in Manciano, Italy at 1:43 p.m. EDT (1743 GMT) on Oct. 24.

Masi's image caught the stream of ionized gas left in the meteor's wake as it rapidly expanded and rose in the upper atmosphere to create a visually spectacular wave effect, which appeared to wrap around Comet Lemmon's tail from our Earthly perspective. A subtle fan-like pattern can also be seen rippling across the image, created as wayward light struck the camera sensor.

"The phenomenon is associated with the ionization of molecular oxygen in the atmosphere caused by the meteor event, followed by its recombination, which produces the emission of light at that wavelength," Masi wrote on the Virtual Telescope Project's website.

Under certain conditions, these glowing trails can appear to form spirals in the upper atmosphere. But despite how intertwined the two appear in the photo, Masi writes, the coiling afterglow of the meteor is actually quite far from the tail of Comet Lemmon. "In this photograph, the meteor's afterglow appears to coil around the comet's ion tail — a pure perspective miracle, since the former is an atmospheric effect induced by the meteor, while the comet itself was about 100 million kilometers away."

Masi also released a spectacular timelapse of the event captured between 1:37 p.m. (17:37 GMT) to 2:12 p.m. (18:12 GMT) on Oct. 24 showing the meteor's ion trail twisting around Comet Lemmon as satellites left streaking trails through the image frames.

Comet Lemmon has brightened dramatically since its discovery in January earlier this year and is currently estimated to have a magnitude of approximately +4.2, according to the Comet Observation database (COBS) run by the Crni Vrh Observatory in Slovenia. Magnitude is the scale used to measure the apparent brightness of objects in the night sky. The lower the number, the brighter the object. That means that it's possible to spot the comet as a dim, hazy patch of light under dark sky conditions, though a pair of 10X50 binoculars or a backyard telescope will help resolve its light!

In late October, Comet Lemmon can be found travelling away from the constellation Serpens Caput towards the constellation Ophiuchus, the serpent-bearer, ahead of its close approach to the sun on Nov. 8.

Editor's Note: If you would like to share your image of Comet Lemmon with Space.com's readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.

Astrophotographer Brennan Gilmore has captured spectacular views of the solar wind stripping a vast section from C/2025 A6 (Lemmon)'s tail, as the icy wanderer continues to brighten ahead of its close approach to Earth on Oct. 21.

Comet Lemmon has brightened dramatically since its discovery on Jan. 3,, raising hopes that it could become a spectacular naked eye comet in October as it nears the closest point to the sun in its 1,350-year orbit on Nov. 8 — a point known as perihelion.

Gilmore's image gives us a spectacular view of Comet Lemmon's glowing green coma as it passed close to the bright star TW Leonis Minoris in the constellation Leo Minor on Oct. 4. A long luminous tail stretches away from the comet's nucleus, as material ejected from the comet reflects the light of the nearby sun.

A comet's tail is constantly being blown by the steady stream of charged particles emanating from the sun collectively as the "solar wind". As such, it will always point away from the sun, rather than simply trailing a comet's direction of travel, like the exhaust trail of an aircraft.

Gilmore released a stunning 60-minute timelapse of Comet Lemmon as a colossal section of its tail was buffeted and stripped away by the solar wind on Oct. 2, during a spectacular disconnection event. The images were taken using a Takahashi Epsilon 130D Newtonian telescope in conjunction with a ZWO astronomy camera from Cismont, Virginia.

Comet Lemmon continues to brighten, with some observations posted by the Comet Observation Database (COBS) run by the Crni Vrh Observatory in Slovenia, putting its brightness at +5.1, which would make it detectable as an extremely dim object to the unaided eye from a dark sky location.

Be sure to check out our finder's guide if you're hoping to lay eyes on Comet Lemmon as it brightens further in October and read our tips on how to photograph a comet if you want to create a permanent memory of the wandering body before it disappears from our skies,

Editor's Note: If you would like to share your astrophotography with Space.com's readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.

In the coming weeks, skywatchers will have an opportunity to view a new comet that is currently inbound on its way toward the sun. This new visitor to the inner solar system is expected to brighten, perhaps becoming a fairly easy object to see in small telescopes or good binoculars.

And there's hope that it may even become bright enough to glimpse with the naked eye under dark non-light polluted skies (for those who have access to such viewing sites).

The new comet is catalogued as C/2025 A6 (Lemmon). It was discovered by the Mount Lemmon Survey, utilizing a 60-inch (1.52-meter) Cassegrain reflecting telescope, equipped with a 10560 x 10560-pixel camera. The telescope is located at the Mount Lemmon Observatory and is operated by the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory located in the Santa Catalina Mountains to the northeast of the city of Tucson.

The Mount Lemmon Survey (MLS) continuously scans the sky looking for near-Earth objects  — asteroids or comets  — whose orbits bring them within a certain distance of the sun and potentially Earth's orbit, meaning they can pass close to our planet. The vast majority of MLS's discoveries have been of asteroids (to date more than 50,000), but every so often the survey will catch sight of a new comet, as is the case with C/2025 A6.

Originally, when first photographed by astronomer David Fuls on Jan. 3, it was believed that the MLS had found yet another asteroid. It appeared as nothing more than a tiny starlike speck of light with a magnitude of +21.5; that's one million times dimmer than the faintest star on the threshold of naked-eye visibility. Follow-up images showed the object to be, in fact, a comet, and an even fainter pre-discovery image was located dating back to November 2024.

An orbit based on 117 observed positions between Nov. 12, 2024 and Aug. 14 has been calculated by Syuichi Nakano of the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams. Nakano found that the comet will pass perihelion — its closest point to the sun — on Nov. 8 at a distance of 49.25 million miles (79.25 million km). It will come closest to Earth (its perigee) on Oct. 20 when it will be 55.41 million miles (89.16 million km) away.

Welcome back!

Comet Lemmon has apparently been here before. Mr. Nakano's orbital computations indicate that at the far end of its orbit (aphelion), it is situated as far as 22.6 billion miles (36.3 billion km) from the sun. Its orbital period is estimated at approximately 1,350 years. However, back on April 16, the comet passed within 216.6 million miles (348.5 million km) of Jupiter. That giant planet's gravitational field served to sap some of comet Lemmon's orbital energy and as such will shorten its period by some 200 years.

We know that comets are composed primarily of frozen gases that are heated as they approach the sun and made to glow by the sun's light. We call this cloud of gas the head or coma.

As the gases warm and expand, particles of dust that were embedded in the comet's nucleus are also released into space. The solar wind blows this material out into an appendage we call the tail. To observers of antiquity, comets resembled a stellar head trailed by long hair, so they called comets, "hairy stars."

Bright among "common" comets

Comets can be broken down into two basic categories:

Bright comets — the kind that can excite those of us without binoculars or telescopes — appear on average perhaps two or three times every 15 to 20 years. The last such comet to do that was this past January with comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS), nicknamed the "Great Comet of 2025."

Then there are the common comets, of which most are only visible either with good binoculars or a telescope. The vast majority of comets fall into this category, but comet Lemmon may end up ranking as rather bright so far as most common comets go, since for a short while it may hover right around the cusp of naked-eye visibility (for those fortunate enough to be blessed with dark, non-light polluted night skies).

How bright?

A number of different predictions have been made regarding the brightness of Comet Lemmon as it passes closest to Earth during the third week of October. To date, the most optimistic brightness forecasts are those issued by Japanese comet expert Seiichi Yoshida and Dutch comet expert Gideon Van Buitenen. Both are projecting that the comet will peak somewhere between magnitude +4 and +5, meaning it might become faintly visible with the unaided eye sometime during early October.

Other forecasts, however, are far more conservative. Daniel W.E. Green at the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, on circular #5594, issued on Aug. 20, "cautiously" suggests a peak magnitude of +7.3 on Oct. 27. That would make it too faint to be seen with bare eyes alone, but certainly within reach of good binoculars or small telescopes.

Where to find it and viewing prospects

Right now, comet Lemmon is a predawn object, located in the faint zodiacal constellation of Cancer. It will cross over into the similarly vague and dim constellation of Lynx on Sept. 9 at a declination near +34°. It will still be quite faint, probably no brighter than magnitude 9 or 10. But from then onward, its brightness and movement against the background stars will progressively increase eastward as it approaches Earth.

For most, the first really good opportunity to try and make a definitive sighting will come on the morning of Oct. 6, when it will move into the southern boundaries of the Great Bear, Ursa Major. On this morning, Comet Lemmon will be passing less than 0.3 degrees to the upper left of the third-magnitude star Tania Australis, a member of the three pairs of stars that mark "The Three Leaps of the Gazelle." Tania is part of the pair marking the second or middle Gazelle leap. It rises in the north-northeast shortly before 1 a.m. local daylight time and by the break of dawn will be one-third up in the east-northeast. The comet will be in the same field of view and could be as bright as magnitude +6 or +7, making it an easy target with binoculars.

Beginning Oct. 12, the comet will begin to be available to evening skywatchers, low in the northwest about 90 minutes after sunset.

On Oct. 16, the comet will be positioned about 1 degree to the upper left of the third magnitude star Cor Caroli in the constellation of Canes Venatici, the Hunting Dogs. At that time, comet Lemmon will be racing 4 degrees per day, so even a few minutes of watching with a telescope should reveal its shift relative to field stars.

On Oct. 22, about 7:30 p.m. local daylight time, look very low above the west-northwest horizon for the brilliant orange star, Arcturus in Boötes the Herdsman. On that same evening, comet Lemmon will be situated 10 degrees above this star (your clenched fist held at arm's length also measures 10 degrees in width). The comet will also be positioned about 2 degrees to the left of the second magnitude star Izar, also in Boötes. A quick check of Izar with binoculars should also reveal the comet.

Keep your expectations low

But as compelling as this all may sound; we now must temper any excitement by providing a very important disclaimer.

By early-to-mid October, many people with binoculars and small telescopes will no doubt attempt to follow the path of Comet Lemmon across the night sky. But seeing it will strongly depend on your observing site. From locations that are plagued by light pollution, sighting this comet may prove to be rather difficult. Remember, you're not looking for a sharp star-like object, but rather something which is spreading its light out over a comparatively large area.

In fact, under a completely dark sky, free of light pollution, perhaps the best instruments for locating the comet will be your own two eyes, especially if you use averted vision.

Recent photographs have shown the comet displaying a distinct greenish color, likely due to a molecule made from two carbon atoms bonded together, called dicarbon. This unusual chemical process is confined chiefly around the comet's head, not its tail. Comets generally throw off two types of tails; tails composed primarily of gas, and tails composed primarily of dust. Dust tails are far brighter and more spectacular to the eye than gas tails, because dust is a very effective reflector of sunlight.

Comet Lemmon's tail, however, appears to be primarily composed of gas. Such tails appear much fainter and glow with a bluish hue. The gas is activated by the ultraviolet rays of the sun, making the tail glow in much the same way that black light causes phosphorescent paint to light up.

So, most who ultimately locate Comet Lemmon in their binoculars or telescopes will typically describe it as a nearly circular cloud, appearing noticeably brighter and more condensed near the center. Some might also detect a faint tail appearing as a bit of an elongation of the comet's coma, but hardly the kind of tail or appendage exhibited by other larger and brighter comets.

A final point to consider: comets are notoriously unpredictable; we can only guess how they ultimately will appear in our sky. It's not completely out of the question that comet Lemmon could surprise us and become unexpectedly bright.

Then again, it might fail to brighten much at all, perhaps living up to the homonym of its name (a lemon). We'll post any updates if needed here on Space.com. So, stay tuned!

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, Sky and Telescope and other publications.

Two comets are putting on an amazing night sky show this month and some intrepid photographers have captured rare views of both celestial objects at the same time.

The photos of Comet Pan-STARRS - which made its closest pass by Earth today (March 5) - and Comet Lemmon were taken by veteran space photographers in Chile and Australia in late February. At the time, both comets were visible from the Southern Hemisphere, though Comet Pan-STARRS is set to become visible from the Northern Hemisphere later this week.

One of the double-comet photos was taken by Yuri Beletsky, a Magellan Instrument Support Scientist at Las Campanas Observatory located in the Atacama Desert of Chile. Beletsky is an accomplished space photographer and used a Canon 5D Mark II camera with an exposure time of about 30 seconds on Feb. 28 to capture the rare sight of the two comets together. 

"Both comets fit perfectly in the field of view of the camera, although only the Pan-STARRS comet was clearly visible by unaided eye," Beletsky told SPACE.com in an email. "The image turned out to be quite deep (you can see many stars across the field) due to excellent atmospheric transparency and darkness of Chilean night sky, and also due to absence of light pollution."

Comet Pan-STARRS was discovered in June 2011 by astronomers using the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System, or Pan-STARRS telescope, in Hawaii. The comet's official designation is C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) and it is making its closest approach to Earth today, coming within 100 million miles (160 million kilometers) to the planet. The comet has brightened considerably in recent days, and could be a dazzling naked-eye sight in the March night sky. [Photos of Comet Pan-STARRS by Stargazers]

Comet Lemmon, or C/2012 F6, was discovered by Alex Gibbs of the Mount Lemmon survey in Arizona in March 2012. It has been gradually getting brighter as it entered the inner solar system and will make its closest approach to the sun on March 24.

Beletsky is not the only stargazer to snap a photo of comets Pan-STARRs and Lemmon together. Patience and some skillful camera positioning also paid off for astrophotographer Justin Tilbrook of Penwortham, South Australia, who captured a  remarkable photo of the two comets on Feb. 17.

In Tilbrook's image, Comet Lemmon appears low above the horizon at the bottom left of the frame, while Comet Pan-STARRS is clearly visible as a bright object with a wispy tail on the right side of the image, near a smudge of light that is the Small Magellanic Cloud (a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way).

"This is the one I've been waiting for," Tilbrook told SPACE.com in an email. "Don't mind saying it was difficult to set this up, a narrow window before sunrise, 4 degrees of hill in the way, limitations with the dome slit and having to mount the camera at the front of the scope at a very odd angle. Took about an hour." He used a Canon 1100D with 18 to 55 zoom lens at 28mm f/4, mounted on a HEQ Pro 5.

So far, Comet Pan-STARRS has been visible from the Southern Hemisphere, but that will change on Thursday (March 7), when the comet enters the Northern Hemisphere night sky.

Editor's note: If you have an amazing skywatching photo of Comet Pan-STARRS, Comet Lemmon or any other night sky object, and you'd like to share it for a possible story or image gallery, please contact managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. This article was first published on SPACE.com.

The comets are coming.

There are always comets in the sky, but most of them are too faint and far away to be seen without a telescope. But that's about to change.

For observers in the Southern Hemisphere there are two comets currently visible, Comet C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) and Comet C/2012 F6 (Lemmon).

Their complicated-looking names are really quite simple. The number, letter, and number indicate when they were discovered: the year, a letter indicating the month half, and the order within the month half. "A" indicates the first half of January, "B" indicates the second half of January, "C" indicates the first half of February, etc.

For example, "2011 L4" indicates the comet was the fourth comet discovered in the second half of June 2011, and "2012 F6" indicates that it was the sixth comet discovered in the second half of March 2012. The names in brackets indicate the discoverer. Nowadays many comets are discovered by and credited to a team like both PANSTARRS and the Mount Lemmon Survey.

Comet C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS)

This comet was discovered two years ago by the PANSTARRS team, and has gradually become brighter as it nears both the sun and the Earth. It has not brightened as quickly as anticipated and is currently just visible with unaided eyes. It is approaching Earth from the south so is currently visible only from south of the equator just before sunrise. The chart shows its predicted positions for the rest of the month.

Beginning around February 20, it will be better seen in the evening sky, and should rapidly increase in brightness. It is predicted to reach maximum brightness in March when it will get too close to the sun for southern observers, becoming a bright object in the Northern Hemisphere.

Comet C/2012 F6 (Lemmon)

This comet came as a bit of a surprise. Currently located in the constellation Octans near the south celestial pole, Comet C/2012 F6 (Lemmon) is barely visible with unaided eyes and not likely to get much brighter. It's rather unusual to have two naked eye comets in the sky simultaneously, albeit faint ones.

Those who call the Northern Hemisphere home may be missing out on these comets this month, but that should change soon, as Comet C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) rounds the sun in early March and appears above the sun at sunset.

Editor's note: If you snap amazing photos of comets C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) and C/2012 F6 (Lemmon, or any other night sky object, that you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, send photos, comments and your name and location to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

This article was provided to SPACE.com by Starry Night Education, the leader in space science curriculum solutions. Follow Starry Night on Twitter @StarryNightEdu.