UPDATE: I was able to image the comet on the morning of the 29th and shot enough imagery to assemble a short animation showing its motion. The animation is sixty 60 second images.
Comet C/2020 R4 (ATLAS) spends only a brief time above the ecliptic during its 956 year orbit of the Sun and for now it is. This image captures it on the 21st of April after it passed perihelion and is heading back out into the far solar system. The comet was located in the constellation Hercules when the image was taken, but is moving quite rapidly and as of today (the 28th) is in Boötes. If you look closely, you can see the comet’s shape is elongated due to its motion even though it is only one 60 second exposure. The comet is crossing the FOV from upper left to lower right.
The comet was discovered by the Mauna Loa telescope of ATLAS on the 12th of September last year.
ATLAS stands for Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System. The system consists of two 0.5m telescopes; one at the Haleakala Observatory on the island of Maui in Hawai’i and the other at the Mauna Loa Observatory on the big island of Hawai’i.
Comet C/2020 R4 (ATLAS)[CV:1x60s]
The diagrams below show its orbit in full and much closer to the Sun to illustrate its location in relation to the Earth at the time of the photo.
 C/2020 R4’s orbit in an high overhead view of the solar system. |
 C/2020 R4’s orbit in an oblique view of the solar system. |