There’s been a new comet in the sky over the past few weeks, but now is the prime time to see it for yourself.
Comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon was discovered by astronomer David C. Fuls on Jan. 3 as part of the Mount Lemmon survey, which is a near-Earth object detection program.
It passed closest to Earth on Tuesday, when it was visible close to the horizon. However, the comet has now risen a bit higher in the sky, making now an opportune time to see it.
“Comet Lemmon is pretty much at its best visibility right now,” Robert Massey, deputy executive director of the Royal Astronomical Society in London, said in a release.
And if you miss out now, you’ll never see it again: it won’t come back for another 1,300 years.
WATCH | Finding Comet Lemmon from Halifax:
Where and when to look
The comet can be found in the western sky as soon as it gets dark.
If you look at the Big Dipper, the first star in the handle of the “spoon” points to a bright star called Arcturus, which is part of the constellation Boötes.
Comet Lemmon can be found above and to the left of the unmistakably bright star.
Over the next few days, it will continue moving toward the southwestern sky and remain at a similar altitude.
While amateur astronomers have been providing stunning images of Comet Lemmon, don’t expect to see that. Instead, it will look like a fuzzy object in the sky.
“It isn’t going to be like Hale-Bopp was for those who remember it back in the late 1990s, or even NEOWISE in 2020, it’s going to be a little tough to see with the eye,” Massey said.
“But, that said, it’s a reasonably bright comet as they go. The fact that you can see it easily with binoculars makes it fairly unusual, and I think for that reason alone it’s something to go and enjoy, particularly if you’ve never seen a comet before.”
The comet has brightened significantly over the past month and is visible with the naked eye in reasonably dark locations. But people in cities are also seeing it using binoculars.
Friday is a good time to catch it, as the moon is roughly only nine per cent illuminated and remains below the horizon. The moon will continue to rise higher in the sky and continue to brighten as it enters first quarter by Monday.
Comet Lemmon will be visible in the Northern Hemisphere until the middle of November, but after Sunday, it will begin to descend lower on the southwestern horizon.
In order to find the comet, you can use apps like SkySafari and Stellarium, among others.
