Comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS): View from Spain
C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) is a hyperbolic Oort cloud comet. It passed perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on April 19, 2026, when it was 0.499 AU (75 million km) from the Sun. The comet was discovered by PanSTARRS in images obtained on September 8, 2025.
Astrophotographer José J. Chambó: "Comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS), imaged on April 14, 2026, in the constellation Pegasus, was shining at around magnitude 5—bright enough for binocular observation—while displaying a long, well-structured tail extending for more than ten degrees.
This image marks my final capture of the comet from my observatory, taken just before it disappeared into the morning twilight and became unobservable from the northern hemisphere. The session took place under challenging conditions, with the comet sitting very low above the horizon, already affected by dawn light and further impacted by the waning Moon brightening the sky.
The original plan was to create a two-panel mosaic to capture more of the tail, but I ultimately discarded the second panel due to the clearly degraded data caused by the advancing daylight, leaving this as the final result of the session.
Even so, the processing—largely reworked for this image—allowed me to bring out the intricate structure of the ion tail. Multiple filaments and brightness variations can be traced along it, inviting the eye to follow their flow as they stream away from the comet’s intense greenish coma.
Only the brightest inner section of the tail fits within this field of view, although at the time it extended much farther across the sky, enhancing the sense of motion already evident even through visual observation.
My last image before the comet faded into the dawn… taken just in time, with daylight already closing in."
Spain, officially the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Peninsular Spain is bordered to the north by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; to the east and south by the Mediterranean Sea and Gibraltar and Morocco, through its exclaves in North Africa; and to the west by Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean.
Location: Valencia, Spain
TS-Photon 8" f/4, Atik 383L+. L=8x60s RGB=1x30s, FOV=77x52'(crop), N:Up E:Left. OAV, Valencia (Spain). J. Chambó
Release Date: April 14, 2026
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