Saturday, 1 November 2025, I attended a Star Party at Oracle State Park.

Sunday night, 2 November, I stepped outside to check on Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon). At 1855 MST, I immediately found it, 7x50 binoculars. At 1903 MST I took this photo using a tripod mounted D850 DSLR camera with a 24-70mm lens (f/2.8, 4 seconds, ISO 5000, FL 70mm). Yes, there are many earth-orbiting satellites spoiling the image.

Monday night, 3 November, was cloudy.

Open: Tuesday, 4 November 2025, 1804 MST Temperature: 82°F

Session: 2106 Conditions: Clear

Equipment:
12" f/8 LX600 w/StarLock
2" 24mm UWA eyepiece
Focal reducer

Camera:
D850 DSLR
iPhone 15 Pro Max

Mounted the D850 DSLR camera at prime focus + focal reducer.

1811 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

Focused on the star Vega and locked the telescope primary mirror.

1817 MST: Wi-Fi ON.

Used SkySafari 7 Pro on the iPhone to slew the telescope to Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon).

1820 MST: Wi-Fi OFF.

I then noticed that I had a visitor in the observatory.

1823 MST: StarLock ON.

Did some framing test images of Comet Lemmon. I then began imaging the comet. Unfortunately, the near Full Moon made the sky so bright and with the comet low in the western sky, the StarLock could not get a good lock onto a guide star.

1834 MST: Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon), prime focus + focal reducer, 10 seconds, ISO 3200, cropped.

1836 MST: StarLock OFF.

1839 MST: Slewed to the Moon and took this image (1/320sec, ISO 100). Mouseover or tap on the image to see a highly saturated version of the same image showing colors from minerals on the surface of the Moon.

Mouseover or tap on image

Removed the camera from the telescope and viewed the bright Full Moon, 102X. A very slight terminator was visible.

Next, I projected the 102X Moon onto the observatory dome. I stepped outside of the observatory and took this handheld iPhone 15 Pro Max photo showing the Moon on Dome. Taken with the Camera app (Night Mode, 3 seconds, 1X lens).

1854 MST: LX600 OFF.

Close: Tuesday, 4 November 2025, 1901 MST Temperature: 70°F

Session Length: 0h 57m Conditions: Clear

As I was leaving the observatory I took this iPhone photograph showing the bright moonlit scene.

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