Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) photographed from Bavaria in a 10-minute exposure, nearly hidden behind dense satellite trails.
Key Takeaways
C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) is currently difficult to spot visually because it sits angularly close to the Sun from Earth’s perspective.
Best viewing window is coming weeks from southern hemisphere skies, but the comet will be fading as it heads outbound toward interstellar space.
The image is a single 10-minute exposure, which turns orbiting satellites into bright streaks while the comet – tracking with the stars – stays compact.
APOD credit goes to Uli Fehr; the comet sits just above image center and is easy to miss without deliberate searching.
Satellites reflect sunlight and appear as drifting points to the naked eye; long exposures are what produce the streak pattern in astrophotography.
Hacker News Comment Review
Commenters focused heavily on the satellite constellation problem: the dense web of trails is treated as a preview of a worse future as Russia, China, and EU constellations join Starlink, with dual-use military implications noted.
Several technically sharp readers questioned the optics: why does the comet not streak too during a 10-minute exposure? The implied answer is that the mount tracks sidereal motion, keeping stars and slow-moving comets sharp while satellites cross the frame.
One commenter noted the clean astrophotography workaround – stacking multiple short exposures statistically removes transient streaks – which makes the single long-exposure choice here a deliberate artistic or illustrative decision, not best practice.
Notable Comments
@signorovitch: Multiple stacked exposures eliminate satellite trails; HDR stacking has additional benefits over a single long exposure.
@albert_e: Asks why trails are dashed, not solid lines – implying the image may be a stack with brief inter-exposure gaps creating the segmented appearance.
@gasi: Posted a zoomable version of the image for anyone struggling to locate the comet.
