ByJamie Carter,
Senior Contributor.
Two comets are becoming brighter in the night sky — and could be on the cusp of naked-eye visibility. Predicted to be at their brightest on Oct. 20-21 during the peak of the Orionid meteor shower, Comet Lemmon (also called C/2025 A6) and Comet SWAN (C/2025 R2) can on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025, be found about 90 minutes after sunset in the northwest and southwest night sky, respectively — though you’ll need binoculars to see them.
These are the first two comets visible to amateur skywatchers since Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in October 2024.
Comet Lemmon is brighter than Comet SWAN. According to the Comet Observation Database, Comet Lemmon is shining at magnitude +4.9 and Comet SWAN at magnitude +5.9, which makes them both almost bright enough to be seen by the naked eye from a very dark sky site. In practice, a pair of 8x42 or 10x50 binoculars is required to see them from most locations.
