On October 11 and 12, 2025, I drove up to the Northshore Summit trailhead, in Lake Mead NRA, NV, to try to photograph Comet SWAN 2025 R2. October 11 was mostly clouded out, though I did get rather impressionist-looking shots. But October 12 was clear, so I got a much better view.
From this trailhead, the comet was over Henderson, Boulder City, and the southwestern part of the Las Vegas Valley, so the sky was not super dark, even after astronomical twilight. But definitely better without the clouds than with the clouds!
The first shot was with my 80mm refractor. Just a trace of a tail. The second shot was with an 85mm lens on a crop dslr. The bright star near the center is about mag 2.4; the one near the bottom left is about 3.2. So, photographically, SWAN looks somewhere in the middle, distinctly non-steller, and green. Each day for the next week or so, it'll be a bit closer to earth and farther from the setting sun. View should keep improving, against a darker sky.
At the same time, Comet Lemmon 2025 A6 is getting higher in the northwest sky after sunset. By this weekend, it should also be against a moderately dark sky before it sets, so there should be two photographable comets, soon.
After I figured I got as good as I was going to get on SWAN on Sunday, I took a few quick shots of M8 and M20 (Lagoon and Trifid Nebulas, respectively). Obviously, both bigger and more obvious than SWAN at the time.
On Friday (October 17), SWAN will be drifting near the the Eagle and Swan Nebulas. Unfortunatley, I won't be free that night day. But perhaps some wide angle stuff the next night might still be fun.
