Here’s How to See Two Comets and a Meteor Shower Light Up the Sky This Month

Skywatchers are anticipating prime viewing conditions for an annual showing of shooting stars and two comet flybys

Sara Hashemi | Daily Correspondent

October 9, 2025

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October is shaping up to be a great month for skywatchers. Two comets blazing through our solar system—C/2025 R2 (SWAN) and C/2025 A6 (Lemmon)—will become more visible to the naked eye in a few weeks. And a meteor shower is poised to provide sparkling views in the middle of the month. Here’s how to best observe these cosmic spectacles.

C/2025 R2 (SWAN)

First spotted by amateur astronomer Vladimir Bezugly in September, the newly discovered C/2025 R2 (SWAN) comet was caught on camera in recent images from the Solar Wind Anisotropies (SWAN) instrument on the joint NASA/European Space Agency Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, a spacecraft dedicated to studying the sun.

The comet “caught everybody by surprise,” says Quanzhi Ye, an astronomer at the University of Maryland, to Marina Koren at the New York Times. It came from the direction of the sun, he explains, so the star’s glow kept it hidden from sky-scanning telescopes as it moved in our direction. It was formally designated as a comet by the International Astronomical Union on September 15.

According to EarthSky’s Eddie Irizarry, R2 (SWAN) was visible from the Southern Hemisphere in late September. The comet is now making its way to northern skies. It will be closest to Earth on October 19, at a distance of approximately 24 million miles away.

To observe the comet, astronomers recommend finding dark skies about one hour after sunset with unobstructed views to the southwest, reports the New York Times. You’ll likely need binoculars to get a good look, though it could get bright enough to be observed with the naked eye as it gets closer, EarthSky notes.

You won’t want to miss out, because there’s a chance the comet could disintegrate. “We are all wondering what it’s going to do next,” says Ye to the New York Times.

C/2025 A6 (Lemmon)

This comet was spotted by astronomers at the University of Arizona’s Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter observatory in January, and EarthSky’s Kelly Kizer Whitt calls it potentially the best comet of the year.

If you want to see A6 (Lemmon) with the help of binoculars or a telescope, look northeast toward the Big Dipper before dawn, though you’ll also be able to see it in the evening sky. The comet will be closest to Earth on October 21, so by mid- to late October, astronomers predict it will brighten—at that point, the comet will have moved toward the western sky. But predicting a comet’s behavior is tricky work, so things could always change.

If we’re lucky, according to the New York Times, we may even be able to see both comets at once around October 31—a real Halloween treat.

Orionid meteor shower

If you want even more skywatching opportunities this month, you can also catch the Orionid meteor shower, which will peak on the night of October 20 to 21. Astronomers expect an average of about 20 meteors per hour and good viewing conditions—because the shower coincides with a new moon this year, the meteors will not easily be outshone by moonlight. The Orionid shower is more predictable than the comets it will accompany this month: It appears every year, peaking around the middle of October.

Want to catch a glimpse? As with the comets, try to find the darkest skies you can. Let your eyes adjust, and look up toward the southeast, if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere (or the northeast, if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere). If you’re really dedicated, maybe you can spot a comet at the same time.

Sara Hashemi | Read More

Sara Hashemi is a science writer and fact-checker currently based in New York City. Her work has appeared in Sierra, The Body, Maisonneuve magazine and more.