Comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) and The Orion Nebula: View from Australia

Comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) and The Orion Nebula: View from Australia

Can you spot the comet? 

Astrophotographer Marco Nero: "Comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) nearing the Orion Nebula (M42) just a few hours ago. The comet itself was just below visible threshold for optical viewing. The tail is still visible, even on images from my iPhone. There's a bit of fine smoke in the air due to local hazard reduction burning this week. There were a few other photographers about tonight braving the cold air to shoot this comet. This is a single exposure so I hope to stack a set of images later when I have the opportunity. I wish I had time to set up a longer lens on an EQ Mount."

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.

The Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) located at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, USA, consists of astronomical cameras, telescopes and a computing facility that is surveying the sky for moving or variable objects on a continual basis, and also producing accurate astrometry and photometry of already-detected objects. The Pan-STARRS Project is a collaboration between the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Maui High Performance Computing Center and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). The NASA Near Earth Object Observation Program is the main funder for the operation of the Pan-STARRS telescopes.

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. New South Wales (NSW) is a state on the east coast of Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria to the south, and South Australia to the west. Its coast borders the Coral and Tasman Seas to the east. 

Image Credit: Marco Nero
Location: Katoomba, New South Wales, Australia

Image Details: Shot with Canon EOS Ra Full Frame Mirrorless camera with the Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM lens. EXIF = 4 Seconds, ISO 4000, 85mm f/1.4
Photographer's website: https://www.instagram.com/nero.marco/
Date: May 10, 2026

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