Chasing a Comet

  Every time I hear of a new  comet, my friend, Jim, and I, get on the hunt. This one - C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) - has been particularly elusive. Neither I nor Jim (who lives in Florida) had caught even a glimpse of it.

 Until last night.

 It's been far too dim for us to see with our eyes and neither my camera nor my cell phone had shown it in any of the pictures I began taking on 09/02. That represents about six weeks of trying.

 The comet neared the Earth on 10/21. It'll round the sun on 11/08. It's about as close - and as bright - as it's likely to get. So where was it?

 People have been posting gorgeous shots of it. But they have expensive cameras and high-end telescopes. Jim and I were working with eyes, binoculars, cameras and cell phones.

 Finally, last night at 8:10 pm, I got this shot:

 The comet is at the center top, slightly right. I knew it as soon as I saw it. The first photo in this blog is cropped from this shot.

 I've seen better comets through the years. Comet Hale-Bopp was simply incredible and will likely be the best comet I'll see in my lifetime. I saw Comet PanSTARRS in 2023. In 2020, NEOWISE, In 2021 Leonard. And just last year I saw Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS). I've also had plenty of near-misses through the years.

 Lemmon is one of the worst of the bunch. I was beginning to think it was a ghost. But last evening I was convinced it was real.

 I found it by using Staellarium so I could see the constellation it would be in and also nearby stars. Both Alphecca (sometimes Alphekka) and Izar were my guides. I didn't see the comet even when I knew where it should be. I relied on the light-gathering power of my camera and cell phone to bring it up out of the light pollution.

 I also used SkyMap, an Android program on my phone, to locate the guide star (the first noted above).

 And  I used commercial material to help locate it. But most helpful was my planetarium program, Stellarium.

 All of the nights I've stood outside peering at the sky have been enjoyable, although disappointing. I'd see views such as this:

 But the final reward after so much time and effort was to finally find this shot on my cell phone:

 So, one more captured ...