Monday, April 27, 2026
C/2025 R3 (PANSTARS): how to see it from Australia, 30 April to 30 May 2026
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| 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.
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.
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| B&W spotters chart | B&W binocular chart |
Printable PDF versions of the charts are available. The B&W spotters chart is here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1owJ0a64MuxgW644us2p5Ih0_yWw7G1Aq/view?usp=sharing and the printable binocular chart is here https://drive.google.com/file/d/17rMC0lW7tCIw6sFQCziQ8HE_tDULafpV/view?usp=sharing
Labels: binocular, C/2025 R3, comet
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