SUNSET: 
0
Photographer:
Mike Olason
Location of Photo:
Tucson, Arizona
Date/Time of photo:
2025 Sept 16, 0228UT
Equipment:
91mm f/4.9 Refractor and ASI533mm camera
Description:
Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN), formerly known as SWAN25B, was only 1/2 degree from the bright magnitude 1 star Spica, the comet was magnitude 6.2, 100 times fainter than Spica. Unfortunately for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere the comet and Spica were only 2.4 degrees above the horizon in an evening twilight sky shortly before they set so the best one could do was take very short images which did not show this encounter very well, especially with Mars only several degrees above the pair. A 1/4 degree long tail was visible above and to the left of the comet coma and the comet coma was 3' (0.05 degrees) wide.
