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Comet 49P/Arend-Rigaux (P=6.74a) can be observed in the evening sky with large instruments until the end of April 2025. Thereafter it is too near the Sun for reasonable observations. It moves from the constellation Cetus into Taurus. The comet passes perihelion at the solar distance of 1.43 AU on Apr. 10, 2025.
The comet became somewhat brighter than expected and reached a maximum brightness of 13.8 mag at the beginning of April 2025, after having been only about 18 mag in mid-December 2024. On the basis of only 17 CCD observations the brightness development can be represented reasonably well with the parametersTotal Brightness and Coma Diameter
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Comet 217P/LINEAR (P=7.83a) passed perihelion at the solar distance of 1.23 AU on May 24, 2025, but was quite close to the Sun for a long time. Starting in mid-August 2025 the comet can be seen in the morning sky from mid-European locations, but should already become fainter than 16.0 mag in November. During this period it moves from the southwestern part of the constellation Gemini to the eastern part of the constellation Cancer.
Due to the unfavorable conditions it is no wonder that just 25 CCD observations can be used for a very preliminary analysis. These can be simulated reasonably well with the brightness parameters
m0=10.0 mag / n=5.
The comet peaked at 12.5 mag at the end of June 2025. The diameter of the medium-condensed coma reached 0.7'. A short appendage towards West could be documented.
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Comet 496P/Hill (P=15.07a) = P/2010 A3 (Hill), which passed perihelion at a solar distance of 1.62 AU on March 10, 2025, reached a maximum brightness of about 15.0-15.5 mag at the end of March 2025. At the beginning of May it became fainter than 16 mag. The diameter of the moderately condensed coma reached about 1.5' (200,000 km).
Andreas Kammerer
