Comet Swan lights up in the starry sky. It is now visible before dawn with binoculars or telescope. Credit: Josh Dury
At the end of March, three amateur astronomers discovered the comet C/2025 F2 (Swan). Immediately, the forecasts began to appear online by affirming the brightness that this object could reach. But, as David Levy says, the discoverer of comets, “the comets are like cats. They have a tail and do what they want”.
In other words, do not bet on the house that current forecasts will become reality. But if you have binoculars or a telescope, you have good chance of finding this comet in the sky before dawn to read for more details on where and when to look.
When and where?
At the beginning of April, the comet shone close to Magnitude 11, quite bright for medium -sized telescopes to detect it from a dark observation site. He rapidly illuminated to size 9 on April 4 and almost at the eighth magnitude the following night.
Seeing the comet now could prove difficult. While the morning twilight begins, F2 is located about 10 ° above the eastern horizon. The full moon occurs on April 12th. Normally, it would be a bad time to look for the comets, but when the comet rises in the early hours of the morning, the moon will be far to the west. Our satellite will still pump a lot of light into the sky, but far from F2.
After that date, the moon decreases in the brightness every night, but also approaches the comet. And unfortunately, the comet also approaches the eastern horizon every day that passes.
A factor that could help observers to identify F2 more easily is that he is currently passing near some bright stars in the Andromeda constellation. Is close to Alpheratz (Alpha [α] Andromedae) the 12th and 13th, near Pi (π) Andromedae on the 16th and 17th, and just south of Mirach (beta [β] Andromedae) on 19 and 20. If it remains at the eighth magnitude, it should prove to be an easy grip. Note its position every night on the ranking of the accompaniment stars.
During the last week of April, the comet will be in the evening sky, at the bottom to the west. If it is quite bright, you can identify it through a telescope or even binoculars. It is unlikely, however, that you will collect it with your naked eyes.
Next and south
C/2025 F2 (SWAN) will reach Perdie – its closest point to the sun – May 1. On that date, it will be 30.9 million miles (49.8 million kilometers) from the sun. If it is brilliant as some forecasts of 5th magnitude, F2 should be a reasonably easy target because it will just be north of the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus. You will have to look at as soon as the sky becomes dark, because F2 will be low in the West.
The comet will have disappeared from the view to the observers of the northern hemisphere after the first week of May. But the amateur astronomers who live south of the equator will see F2 higher, but also a little more passed out, every night.
An internal discovery
What makes this comet unusual is that the three co-discorents-Vladimir Bezugly from Ukraine, Michael Mattiazzo from Australia and Rob Matson from California-did not find him watching or photographing through their telescopes. Rather, each of them studied public images taken by the anisotropic of the solar wind (Swan) on the solar and elious observatory, launched in December 1995.
Normally, the comets are named for their discoverers. When the discoverers use images available to the public, however, they are appointed for the Observatory or for space vehicles that have taken them. Therefore, the acronym “swan” in the name of the comet.
So, the target evenings around New New, which occur on April 27, and observe a comet that has been found inside. Try not to lose it because it will not return to our neighborhood for over half a million years.
