Astroblog

Tuesday, May 05, 2026

UPDATE on Comet C/2025 R2 (PANSTARRS)

Comet C/2025 R3 captured from Caufield Australia by Con Stoitsis ©, May 4th.

Comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) has been recovered in the Southern Hemisphere and Australasia by multiple observers. Magnitude seems to be in the order of 5 or so. Although this makes it theoretically dark sky visible to the unaided eye, most observers will find binoculars or a small telescope best.

The comet is now climbing into darker skies and will be visible when the sky is full dark. I have been able to detect it in 10x50 binocular at nautical twilight, so it should remain visible when it gets fully dark for several days, especially as the moon wanes.

Of course this cloud permitting. Which it hasn't been.

While there has been outstanding images of the comet (see here and here) they are all long exposures, though binoculars it will look like a small fuzzy ball with a stubby tail

I finally got Comet C/2025 R3 after days of rain and cloud. It was still cloudy, but there were gaps that let me catch it in binoculars. Its the fuzzy dot roughly in the centre above the line of three stars. My long exposure got photobombed by clouds so I'm not presenting it. Under difficult conditions with twilight and drifting clouds interfering I estimated maybe magnitude 5.5?


Comet C/2025 R3, 4May, 2026 at 18:39 ACST as captured with my Samsung S24, 5x zoom, ISO 3200 and 2 seconds exposure from Largs Bay. The small unprepossessing fuzzy blob roughly in the centre is the comet, compare with the stellarium chart. t the right. Click to embigen	Stellarium chart of the comets position on 4May, 2026 at 18:39 ACST. Nestled between 48 and 57 Eridanus.

A printable B&W spotters chart and viewing guides are at my comet PANSTARRS page

https://astroblogger.blogspot.com/2026/04/c2025-r3-panstars-how-to-see-it-from.html

Labels: binocular, C/2025 R3, comet

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 7:41 pm 0 comments

Monday, April 27, 2026

C/2025 R3 (PANSTARS): how to see it from Australia, 30 April to 30 May 2026


Western sky on Thursday, April 30 as seen from Adelaide at 18:30 ACST (60 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen). Comet C/2025 R3 may be visible in the twilight. Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at roughly the equivalent local time (60 minutes after sunset)	Path of Comet C/2025 R3 over the month. Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at roughly the equivalent local time (60 minutes after sunset).	Approximate binocular view of Comet C/2025 R3 until May 4th. Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at roughly the equivalent local time (60 minutes after sunset).

C/2025 R3 (PANSTARS) has passed through the field of view of the SOHO, CORR-1 and STEREO satellites. C/2025 R3 has survived perihelion on 20 April and so we have a chance to view it after it is closest to the earth on April 27.

It may be visible in Australia from the 27th if the brightest predictions are correct (probably not) and from the 30th if more modest predictions are correct.

SOHO LASCO C3 image of comet C/2025 R3 on the 26th.

In the satellite images it looks like the comet got no brighter than magnitude 1, and by the time it is in our skies it may be magnitude 4.

While this is theoretically unaided eye visible, it is low in the twilight and may fade substantially before it gets high enough in dark skies to see properly. Nonetheless, at the very least it will be a nice little binocular comet.

At Nautical twilight (60 minutes after sunset) on April 30th, if you sweep down from blue-white Rigel, the brightest star in Orion. to almost level with Venus and Aldebaran, you should see the comet (it will be a faint fuzzy dot most likely).

On the 3rd to the 5th the comet is within a binocular field of nu Eridanus, star hopping down from Rigel by 3 binocular widths should bring you to nu Eridanus (see charts below)

On the 8th the comet is closest to bright Rigel. By then it may be at the limit of binocular observation.