Overview

• Look during a 30-minute window about 90 minutes after dusk, with Lemmon also showing before dawn for some observers.
• Lemmon sits below the Big Dipper near Cor Caroli in the northwest, while SWAN is low in the southwest and passes near the Eagle Nebula’s Pillars of Creation on Friday.
• Latest reports put Lemmon around magnitude +4.9 and SWAN near +5.9, making binoculars the practical choice for most locations.
• SWAN reaches closest approach around Oct. 19 (about 24–25 million miles), with Lemmon closest on Oct. 21 at roughly 55.4 million miles during the new-moon window.
• Tripod-mounted long exposures on a DSLR or smartphone night mode can reveal the comets’ green comae and tails even when they are hard to spot by eye.