General Discussion

The comet has -- not unexpectedly -- brightened as it has approached the inner solar system, and is now showing obvious cometary features like a coma and a tail. It is about ready to disappear into sunlight as it passes on the far side of the sun from Earth. It does passes fairly close to Mars in a couple of weeks, and there are plans to observe it with one or more of the spacecraft presently in orbit around that planet. It will be reappearing in our morning sky during November, and may be bright enough to see with larger backyard telescopes then.

Comets are a fairly common phenomenon; on average, at any given time a half-dozen or so may be detectable with larger backyard telescopes, and a few dozen can be detected with large telescopes equipped with sensitive electronic CCD detectors. The past few months have actually been below average in terms of cometary activity, but that is starting to pick back up now. One comet, Comet Lemmon, is in the morning sky and bright enough to see with binoculars (from dark rural sites, anyway); it may briefly become bright enough to see with the unaided eye (faintly, and, again, from dark rural sites) late next month when it comes somewhat close to Earth. Comet SWAN -- one of many comets that have been discovered via the Solar Wind ANisotropies ultraviolet telescope aboard the SOHO spacecraft over the past two decades -- is presently bright enough to see with binoculars from the southern hemisphere, and when it comes somewhat close to Earth next month may still be that bright, and visible from the northern hemisphere as well. Nothing in the slightest bit unusual about any of this.