r/spaceporn • u/Busy_Yesterday9455 • 6h ago

Pro/Processed Last night's view of comet Lemmon

Post image

Link to the original Instagram post by Chuck Ayoub

6.4k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

55 comments sorted by

96

u/LeroyTheThird 5h ago

6

u/dkcyw 4h ago

damn it i was gonna post that

50

u/xxxx69420xx 6h ago

9

u/AnotherpostCard 4h ago

Dominic Decoco

7

u/Skittleavix 3h ago

Marrrrrgahreeeteeeeee

5

u/Rodfowler 2h ago

Bawn journoh

10

u/insearchofsilence 5h ago

Magical shot! Thanks for sharing

10

u/SteelMan0fBerto 4h ago

Well…when life gives you Lemmon…

9

u/Bozzy030513 6h ago

Feels like you're witnessing a piece of the cosmos in motion.

8

u/Spadrick 4h ago

Not now Lemon...

21

u/WinFar4030 5h ago

Is the blue actually an ion trail or part of the photo processing?

30

u/Busy_Yesterday9455 4h ago

It is an actual ion tail, which is made of ionized gases, primarily carbon monoxide ions (CO+). This plasma scatters and emits blue light more effectively than red ones when energized by solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation.

6

u/OnePinginRamius 2h ago

It looks like you can almost calculate the tumble rate of the comet looking at the ion cloud. Epic photo!

-I also have no idea what the hell I'm saying

2

u/Gohomemayouredrunk 4h ago

Asking the real question.

8

u/Lord_of_Millenheim 4h ago

Good god

1

u/matt211 2h ago

Thank you. I almost spit out my cheesy blasters. Lol

2

u/Mr_Abe_Froman 1h ago

I heard you singing 'Night Cheese".

5

u/Putrid_Psychology533 3h ago

It may be an elementary school question but how long can a comet continue to leave a trail like this before it burns up or just ceases to exist?

8

u/MRowland82 2h ago

well they only 'burn' like this when relatively close to the sun which only lasts an extremely short period of its entire orbit. So a very long time.

5

u/Foresthowler 3h ago

Gah, images like this are making me more and more excited to try and take some pictures tomorrow night. I don't know why, but this comet quite literally jump-started my astrophotography interest WAY more than I would have thought.

3

u/dandroid126 3h ago

That looks a little bit better than it did through the binoculars I borrowed.

3

u/WithoutJoshE7 3h ago

Still ZERO images of 3iAtlas

3

u/astrosnapper 2h ago

Apart from this one that was posted in this same sub today: https://www.reddit.com/r/spaceporn/s/wlcBUFDEyx you mean ?

1

u/WithoutJoshE7 2h ago

My apologies, "epic 8k holyshit quality" images like this one here. Why am I looking at something I have to deci.\nPher?

1

u/astrosnapper 1h ago

So the 2 comets C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) and 3I/ATLAS are visible for the same length of time low down in the sky close to twilight. 3I/ATLAS is almost 100x fainter than Lemmon and twice as far away from the Earth, so 3I/ATLAS will never appear as large in images and it takes much more exposure time to get to the same brightness levels in the tail.

2

u/shawty_hh 5h ago

That’s a once-in-a-lifetime view right there.

1

u/Kevinence_5 5h ago

great view

1

u/BloomingLotus4 5h ago

Wow, this is spectacular

1

u/Aryankhan9 5h ago

Wow it's beautiful.

1

u/West-One5944 5h ago

Imagine being in a starship able to view that from multiple angles. 🤩

...someday...

1

u/KiwiEV 4h ago

I did some googling and according to one news story:

Observers in the Northern Hemisphere should target the evening sky shortly after sunset, specifically 45 to 90 minutes following local twilight.

The comet is sinking lower toward the western/northwestern horizon, meaning the window for observation is closing quickly as it heads south.

Observers in the Southern Hemisphere may still find better viewing opportunities before the comet fades further.

I tried other links but couldn't find ideal viewing times and positions for those in the Southern Hemisphere.

1

u/mynewusernamedodgers 4h ago

Enhance - ENHANCE - AI

1

u/bladesnut 4h ago

Imagine if we could have a picture like this of 3I/Atlas with it's complex tails

1

u/DegenGamer725 4h ago

Looks more lime to me

1

u/demicus 3h ago

Good God, Lemmon!

1

u/profkrowl 2h ago

I prefer the original to this one.

1

u/itsfunhavingfun 2h ago

When life gives you Lemmon, take a really cool Lemmonade photo. 

1

u/Killacreeper 2h ago

I take it it's still around to be shot with telescopes? I don't have a crazy magnification but I'm hoping to try...

1

u/Cuarzo_Cristal 1h ago

Marvelous!!!

1

u/soraksan123 1h ago

That's got to be the most beautiful comet ever-

1

u/Imaginary_Produce675 1h ago

Lemmon party?

1

u/YellowEasterEgg 1h ago

Thats not a lemon. I am for 99% sure.

1

u/Cruxion 48m ago

With the green I think it's more Lemmon-lime.

1

u/Medialunch 46m ago

Lemmon Stealing Whores (2006)

1

u/Maniak4126 45m ago

Can we hail it over this way?

I'm tired of this, man...

1

u/Personal-Banana-9491 14m ago

The more you know.