Comet C/2025 F2 (SWAN) Eruption
Taken by Mike Olason on April 10, 2025 @
Tucson, Arizona
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Details:
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 point several days ago. Now that the MPC has finally recognized SWAN25F one can use Astrometrica to more precisely determine the comets magnitudes since April 3. I attempted to make all comparisons as equal as possible, with the one exception that on April 3 when the comet was fainter and moving a little slower relative to Earth 18x10 second images were used for the magnitude calculations rather than 12x10 second images for the other 3 mornings. All images were taken thru a green filter, same altitude before morning twilight, no satellite streaks, same aperture diameter of 3.5' for all calculations and all in very clear sky conditions. What the results show is that 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. From the images one can see the difference in the coma and tail from the 4 mornings with everything being as equal as possible. To view these images properly you will have to click on the large image.
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