Comet SWAN puts on a must-see sky show as it becomes visible with binoculars without telescope

A new comet is visible in sky, C/2025 F2 (SWAN), and can be discovered low in the east just before the dawn twilight. It is situated just within the well-known star pattern, or asterism, called the Great Square of Pegasus. It's illuminating at about magnitude +8, which means it's too dim to be seen with the naked eye.

Reports said Minor Planet Center officially designated comet SWAN25F as C/2025 F2 (SWAN) on April 8. SWAN is an instrument particularly designed to study the Sun by mapping variations in the solar wind captured images in late March, in which Australian amateur astronomer Michael Mattiazzo spotted the comet.

When Comet Hale-Bopp was found 30 years ago, amateur astronomers detected most comets, scanning throughout telescopes, scanning the sky searching for them. These days the vast majority of comets are discovered by arrays of robotic survey telescopes, such as PANSTARRS and ATLAS. Comet F2 was discovered using a combination of the two.

Numerous comet observers poring over images captured by the SWAN (Solar Win Anisotropies) camera onboard NASA’s SOHO solar observatory independently spotted what they considered might be a comet moving through them.

Soon the comet had been seen and visible in the sky. They provided it the informal name 'Comet SWAN F2' while they waited for it to be confirmed and called officially.

Observers worldwide are getting up before sunrise to swing their telescopes and cameras towards Pegasus, hoping to see and image this new celestial visitor.

The appearance

The comet is currently quite small, visually much tinier than the nearby globular cluster M15, and appears through telescopes like a slightly blurred star. However, long-exposure images captured through telescopes reveal a slender, whip-like tail extending at least a degree across the sky, besides the comet’s vivid green hue. Comet F2 is soon set to leave the Great Square of Pegasus and continue its path into the neighbouring Andromeda constellation.

What lies ahead for Comet C/2025 F2 (SWAN)?

As per reports, Comet C/2025 F2 (SWAN) is anticipated to reach perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun, on May 1, 2025. At that time, it will be visible in the evening sky within the constellation Taurus and is forecast to peak at a brightness of approximately magnitude +4.

In May 2025, Comet C/2025 F2 (SWAN) will look low in the northwest twilight just after sunset, located near the Pleiades star cluster, prior to moving past it on its way toward a passage through the neighboring Hyades cluster.