On Sunday, October 26, 2025, my husband I drove back to Sargent, Texas for darker skies (Bortle 4) and another try at Comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon.  Happily, this time the sky was clear and I successfully captured the comet with my small telescope.  I was also successful in seeing it with a tail with binoculars. And I managed to capture some wide field images with my camera on a tripod.

This time I decided to go with longer frames to try the capture the comet’s ion tail, and I was delighted with what I saw even in single frames.  I can even see motion in the tail between frames, which I think is really cool.  I’m working on a movie of that, but it’s the equivalent of processing multiple comets, so it’s taking a while.  I’ve also got some wide angle shots to process.  And at least one more set of telescope images.

Camera geek info – telescope:

• William Optics Zenith Star 73 III APO telescope
• William Optics Flat 73A
• ZWO 2” Electronic Filter Wheel
• Antila RGB filters
• ZWO ASI183MM-Pro-Mono camera
• William Optics Uniguide 32MM F/3.75
• ZWO ASI220MM-mini
• ZWO ASiair Plus
• iOptron CEM40
• Sargent, Texas Bortle 4 skies

Frames – telescope:

• October 19, 2025
  • 16 60 second Gain 150 R lights 
  • 30 0.05 second Gain 150 R flats
  • 15 60 second Gain 150 G lights 
  • 30 0.02 second Gain 150 G flats
  • 17 60 second Gain 150 B lights (16 for stars)
  • 30 0.02 second Gain 150 B flats
  • Matching darks and flat darks from library