How to Capture Comets with Seestar — Your October Comet Guide
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How to Capture Comets with Seestar — Your October Comet Guide

C/2025 R2 (SWAN)

Features:

It currently boasts a spectacular ion tail exceeding 5 degrees in length—equivalent to the span of 10 full moons lined up!

Brightness:

It currently shines at magnitude 6–7, making it capture-worthy with a Seestar telescope. Under optimal conditions, it may brighten to magnitude 4 by late October, potentially becoming visible to the naked eye in dark night skies.

Observation Window & Position (Key Points!):

  • Now through late October: Visible in the low southwest sky after sunset.
  • Critical Dates: It will make its closest approach to Earth on October 19th, presenting a prime opportunity for observation and photography.
  • Image Credit: Denis C. Martinez | Seestar S50

C/2025 A6 (Lemmon)

Features:

It is a dynamically old comet, meaning it has made multiple approaches to the Sun.

Brightness:

Between October and November, this comet may reach magnitude 8. Additionally, C/2025 A6 has the potential to brighten further—by approximately 3 magnitudes. Comets of this type often brighten significantly near perihelion, so let’s wait and see!

Observation Window & Position (Key Points!):

  • Comet Lemmon is now visible in the Northern Hemisphere's morning sky. By mid-October, it will move to the evening sky, low in the northwest about 90 minutes after sunset. It won’t be visible from the Northern Hemisphere after late November.
  • Northern Hemisphere high-latitude observers are in for a treat—north of 48°N, it will even become "circumpolar" (never setting).
  • Image credit: Don Curry | Seestar S50 78 x 30s subs | EQ Mode

3I/ATLAS

Features:

A rare interstellar object (from outside the solar system), it’s the third of its kind found in our solar system, following 'Oumuamua and 21/Borisov. Its green glow has sparked scientific interest.

Brightness:

Dim, peaking around magnitude 12—needs tools like Seestar to capture clearly. Its orbit (inclined ~5° to the ecliptic, near planetary planes) makes it visible from both hemispheres.

Observation Window & Position (Key Points!):

Invisible late October (passing near the Sun), it reappears in pre-dawn eastern skies (Virgo/Leo direction) from late November. Best observed around new moons, when skies are darkest.

Comet Shooting Tips

Step1: Connect the telescope, tap the star map, and access the celestial object library.

Step2: Search directly by comet name: C/2025 R2 (SWAN), C/2025 A6 (Lemmon), 3I/ATLAS.

Step3: Once the target is located, tap "GoTo". It is recommended to enable RAW format.

Tips from Seestar User:—— Jason Marriott

  • One big tip is not to use plan mode for comet imaging at least in it's current state it can place it in not such a great spot. Also for framing you are going to want to place it near the bottom corner of the frame that way you can catch the most of the tail! Also because I have a lot of light pollution (B7 skies), you avoid the worst of the light gradient.
  • Another note about the corner is not too close to the edges as to account for dithering (frames that move slightly every so often to avoid walking noise)
  • Credit: Jason Marriott
  • Details: S50 | 45x20s | Bortle 7
  • Top: straight out of Seestar, Bottom: edited in Pixinsight

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