TRAC Monthly Report: October 2025

Stargazing

Summer/Autumn Constellations

We saw the brightest stars in the early autumn sky. Capella in Auriga was seen high in the north-east. Towards the end of the month, orange-red Aldebaran was seen in Taurus near to the Hyades star cluster.

An hour after sunset on 25 Oct 2025, we used the bright star Arcturus in Bootes to locate Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) in the west – Read more about this further on in this newsletter.

Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon)

Facing west, we were able to see this comet from the driveway on 25 Oct 2025. The comet was east of the magnitude +2.5 star Izar in Bootes, above Arcturus. I lined the comet up with the top of a telegraph pole so it was easy to spot with binoculars.

The comet's tail was visible in 10x50 binoculars stretching upwards. Krum said the comet looked purple to him. I thought it looked distinctively green. Krum suggested that he might be colour blind. We'll leave that up to his ophthalmologist.

Lunar Observations

International Observe the Moon Night 2025

TRAC's "Observe the Moon Night 2025" event turned out really well. We enjoyed clear views of the Moon for the whole two-hour event.

We were lucky with the weather. We got decent views of the Moon from 19:30 onwards. After 20:30, we got a good view of Saturn and Titan. The plough was visible, though it wasn't super clear.

I think people who attended the event had a good time. We recevied some positive feedback via email later that evening and people expressed an interest in attending similar events in the future.

Image credit: MK (TRAC)

Above image: Matey K captured this photos of the Moon as it appeared through the telescope eyepiece at ~47x magnification at our Observe the Moon Night event on 04 Oct 2025.

Next time, we'll start 15 minutes earlier, set up more telescopes, put up our posters at least two weeks in advance, and remember to take a group photo!

Thank you to everyone who helped make the event a success. Thank you to Krum for designing an awesome poster. Someone said it looks "too professional" – we'll take that as a compliment. Thank you to George for getting the posters and leaflets printed. Thank you to Matey and Charlie for your help with planning and for operating the telescope on the night.

Supermoon Moonrise (06 Oct 2025)

This was the first of three "Supermoons" in the final three months of 2025. Although the "supermoon" is not anything particularly special in terms of astronomy, it's always fun to watch a moonrise of the Full Moon to witness the "Moon Illusion" – where the Moon looks enormous when close to the horizon.

Image credit: JM (TRAC)

Above image: A pale yellow Moon rises in the east. Photo taken at 18:20 on 06 Oct 2025.

Image credit: JM (TRAC)

Above image: A Perigee Harvest Full Moon rises behind houses and trees with red and gold autumn leaves. Photo taken at 18:37 on 06 Oct 2025.

Moon Observations (06 Oct 2025)

We were out again later on 06 Oct 2025 to view the Moon as the night was very clear. The so-called "Supermoon" didn't appear much larger than normal, but it was definitely much brighter.

Photos were taken, but the results were mixed. Only photos sent to me in good time will be published on our website!

Image credit: KK (TRAC)

Above image: Krum K took this photo of the Moon with his new phone. Taken without the aid of a tripod, he managed to capture his Moon photo by standing perfectly still with his arms outstretched and his phone held high.

Apollo 11 Landing Sites

I stayed out an hour longer on 06 Oct 2025 and tried to locate the Apollo 11 landing sites. I found it tricky to navigate to the surrounding craters when using the high-magnification eyepiece.

A horizontally flipped image of the site might help next time. The photos I took on my phone do show the site, but the craters are not easy to see.

Next time, it will be better to view the Moon a few days before or after the date of the Full Moon.

Planets

Saturn

We observed Saturn during our IOTMN event on 04 Oct 2025. Its rings appeared as a thick line through the centre of the planet.

Jupiter

Magnificent Jupiter returned to our skies near the end of October. Shining at mag. -2.3, it stood out a mile, looking like nothing else in the night sky.

MKAS Visit

A group of six TRAC team members visited the Mid-Kent Astronomical Society for their Family Space Night hosted at their Bredhurst HQ on the evening of 24 Oct 2025.

It was great to meet some fellow local astronomers, and I'm so glad the weather turned out well. We saw some different types of telescopes in action and were able to observe the Ring Nebula and the Andromeda Galaxy.

The indoor activities were fun, and we enjoyed listening to the talk on astronomy for beginners. Krum built a motorised model of the Sun, Earth, and Moon. I was particularly interested in the spectroscopy demonstration because I hadn't seen that before in person – I'd only ever seen it described in textbooks.

We also won several prizes in the raffle, including a guide to the night sky for 2026, which will come in useful next year. Nadia won a bottle of wine, which made her visit even more enjoyable.

Thank you to MKAS for organising this astronomy event!

Summary

Event Success

We had a fantastic start to the month with our successful "Observe the Moon Night" event. We did well to go ahead despite the poor weather, so special thanks to our Head of Observations, Matey K, for a good call on that front.

Comet Success

The weather was bad again for the remainder of October. It was disappointing to not be able to get out at all over the school holidays. But we did get to see a comet, which wasn't on the plan. Well done to Krum for seeing the comet – it was most probably the only opportunity this year to see one.

Telescopes Arrive

TRAC acquired two additional telescopes this month: a reflector and a refractor, both on German equatorial mounts.

Image credit: JM (TRAC)

Above image: A Celestron AstroMaster 130EQ-MD telescope.

Image credit: JM (TRAC)

Above image: A Celestron PowerSeeker 80EQ telescope.

In November, we'll learn how to set them up and use the equatorial mounts – they're a little more complicated than what we're used to using.

James M
TRAC Team Leader
02 Nov 2025 – Rainham, Kent