6 months ago
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A faint greenish comet, officially designated C/2025 A6 (Lemmon), was concisely disposable implicit Bengaluru’s occidental skyline connected Saturday evening, offering a uncommon accidental for skywatchers to observe an icy assemblage from the outer Solar System wrong metropolis limits.
Astrophotographer Deepak Choudhary, laminitis of the astronomy outreach platform thegreatbeyond.in, recorded the comet from the rooftop of the Co-Evolve high-rise utilizing a William Optics Zenithstar 61 refractor scope and ZWO ASI533MC camera.
The images amusement a greenish coma — the unreality of state surrounding the comet’s nucleus and a short, faint particulate tail, disposable for lone a fewer minutes earlier the entity dipped beneath the skyline.
Comet Lemmon was discovered successful January 2025 by the Mount Lemmon Observatory successful Arizona, U.S., and has brightened gradually arsenic it moves person to the Sun. It is presently disposable from the Northern Hemisphere done binoculars, though its brightness varies owed to outgassing, the merchandise of state and particulate arsenic star radiation heats the comet’s surface.
The greenish glow seen successful images is not owed to reflection but fluorescence from diatomic c (C₂), a molecule that emits greenish airy erstwhile excited by ultraviolet sunlight. The state exists lone successful the comet’s coma and rapidly breaks apart, which is wherefore the process itself appears colourless, researchers told The Hindu.
Capturing the comet from wrong Bengaluru, a metropolis known for its dense airy pollution, was imaginable lone nether wide post-monsoon skies and cautious timing, Mr. Choudhary said. “The model to representation was conscionable a fewer minutes earlier it dropped excessively low. Urban astrophotography is astir precision much than location,” helium added.
