64p 20181108 dbamberger

64P/Swift-Gehrels is a periodic comet with a diameter of 3.2 km. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.4 to 7.5 AU, with an orbital period of 9.4 years.

64P came within 0.44 AU (67 million km) of Earth on October 27th, just a week before it passed its closest point to the Sun. This marks the most favourable opposition of this particular comet for the next 74 years.
The comet shows a large circular coma with a diameter of about 10 arcminutes. The inner parts of the coma appear elongated, indicating the presence of a short broad tail.

64P brightened unexpectedly by about 3 mag in August, and remained bright since then. Now it is observable at 9-10 mag in the constellation Andromeda (bright enough for small telescopes).

Photometry (APASS V comparison stars unfiltered, 308" aperture radius): 9.5 ± 0.1 mag
Nuclear magnitude (Gaia DR2 G magnitude unfiltered, 6.8" aperture radius): 13.6 ± 0.1 mag