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Photographer:

Mike Olason

Location of Photo:

Tucson, Arizona

Date/Time of photo:

2025 April 10, 1143UT

Equipment:

50mm f/5 Refractor and IMX462 camera

Description:

For those who have wondered why Comet C/2025 F2 (SWAN) formerly known as Comet SWAN25F has been so hard to observe the past few mornings, it is because the comet has faded a magnitude since reaching its brightest several days ago. Sometime between April 3 and April 6 the comet had a major eruption, which increased its brightness by a factor of 4 to magnitude 8.4 from magnitude 10.0, since then the comet has evidently returned to a normal material ejection rate and has faded a factor of 2 times to stabilize at around magnitude 9.3 the past few mornings, which has it following the expected magnitude predictions if it is only to brighten to magnitude 4 or 5 by perihelion on May 1. One can see the difference in the coma and tail from these images as it brightened and then faded.