Comet Lemmon A6

I have been struggling for the last month to finally capture two images that have been haunting me. The first is C/2025 Lemmon A6 which has only been available in my area for about an hour each night low in the horizon. Most of the time, it is too low for me to capture or the sky is too light. But tonight I was able to capture the image for the first time. It is far from perfect, but I learned a lot. I will post an image soon as I want to try again. Why?

Comets are funny. The Tail of a coment always points towards the sun, but the direction of travel is not necessarily the same. Remember a comet is not heading right at the sun, it is heading in an orbit around the sun. If your image has an exposure that is too long, you get a bar type image and a tail that is perpendicular to the tail. I am not even sure my brain has been able to wrap around the issue, but what I have learned from people smarter than I is that I need to shorten the exposure time. The problem with doing that is you don’t get the tail. Hmm…..to balance the photo is going to be hard. Especially with the lack of time per night to get the perfect shot.