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Photographer:

Mike Olason

Location of Photo:

Tucson, Arizona

Date/Time of photo:

2026 March 2, 1242UT

Equipment:

50mm f/5 Refractor and IMX462 camera

Description:

It was a beautiful clear morning on March 2 to collect some images of C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) despite the 99% illuminated Moon, morning twilight and the comet at an altitude of 4.2 degrees. The comet continues to get a little higher in the sky each morning, but unfortunately the Sunrise and morning twilight also continue to get a little earlier each morning which leaves little time to collect some images before twilight washes out the comet. On this morning the images showed a comet coma 1.5' wide, a greenish coma, a hint of a tail and a comet magnitude of 10.8. The fact that the comet shows so well under these bad conditions bodes well for a bright comet as it moves towards perihelion on April 19 and nearest approach to Earth on April 26, maybe a naked eye comet.