Comet C/2023 H2 (Lemmon) will reach its perihelion (the closest point on its orbit to the Sun) on Sunday 29 October 2023, when it will be approximately 0.89 AU from the Sun (i.e. 89% of the distance from the Sun to the planet Earth, or 133 142 000 km). At this time the comet will be 0.49 AU from the Earth, in the constellation of Canes Venatici, having a magnitude of 7.1, making it visible from the Northern Hemisphere with a good pair of binoculars or small telescope.
Comet C/2023 H2 (Lemmon) was discovered on 28 April 2023 by the University of Arizona's Mt. Lemmon Survey at the Steward Observatory on Mount Lemmon in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson. The designation C/2019 U6 (Lemmon) implies that it is a comet (C/), that it was the second comet-like body (2) discovered in the second half of April 2023 (period 2023 H - the year being split into 24 half-months represented by the letters A-Y, with I being excluded), and that it was discovered by the Mount Lemmon Survey (Lemmon).
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Comet C/2023 H2 (Lemmon) has an orbital period of 3876 years and a highly eccentric orbit tilted at an angle of 114° to the plain of the Solar System, that brings it from 0.89 AU from the Sun at closest perihelion (89% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun to 493 AU from the Sun at aphelion (493 times as far from the Sun as the Earth or about 16.4 times as far from the Sun as the planet Neptune, and considerably outside the Kuiper Belt). As a comet with a period of more than 200 years, C/2023 H2 (Lemmon) is considered to be a non-Periodic Comet, since it is unlikely that it would be identified as the same body on another visit to the Inner Solar System.
Comet C/2023 H2 (Lemmon) is expected to pass by ot Earth on 10 November 2023, when the comet will reach 0.19 AU (28 424 000 km) from the planet at about 11.45 pm GMT. This is close for a cometary fly by of the Earth, although it will probably still not be naked eye visible.
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