PanSTARRS is one of several astronomy photography programs that searches continuously for things that are changing in the sky. It discovers nova, asteroids, and comets. Comet C/2025 R3 was discovered by PanSTARRS in September, 2025, and made its closest approach to the sun on April 19, 2026. In the last few weeks before perihelion, it was a binocular or borderline-naked eye object. However, it's now likely too close to the sun to be viewed. It'll next be visible in a few days, in the evening sky, but likely only in southern latitudes.
Knowing the short window available for viewing, I made plans to try for it on the morning of April 12, after an outreach event at Sky's the Limit Observatory, in Twentynine Palms. Unfortunately, it was totally clouded out. So I made plans to come out this way again the next week. As the forecast was more favorable for Saturday, April 18, versus Sunday, April 19, I drove out on the 17th, and headed into Joshua Tree early on the morning of April 18.
I took some shots with my 50mm f/1.8 lens on a my Nikon D3500, and some with my Nikon D780 and my 80mm f/7 refractor, with a focal reducer, for an effective focal length of about 450mm and f/5.6. Same set up as for most of my non-telephoto shots. Short exposures, no more than 15 seconds.
Because I concentrated so hard on bringing my astrophography rig (the one I used, and the set up for my larger refractor, , I forgot to toss a pair of binoculars in the car. So I only saw the comet with my eye briefly, at the end of the morning, when I swapped an eyepiece in for my camera. By then, it was barely visible. Would have been beautiful in binoculars.
PanSTARRS was no Lemmon, and definintely no Atlas-Tsuchunshan. But it did have a nicely formed tail, and was easily photographed, if somewhat thin and hard to see without optical aid. It also had a much shorter period of visibility, and only in the morning sky.
After my comet shooting, I went back to the motel, slept for a bit, then took a hike to Warren Peak. That night, I did another outreach night at Sky's the Limit. So there's still that to blog, too.
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