Comet C/2020 R4 (ATLAS)

[Bill S]

I've been having a look at comet C/2020 R4 (ATLAS) on a few occasions recently. The shot below shows it in Bootes shining at magnitude 10. The snapshot is based on 9 subs of 5 seconds each using Starlight Live + Jocular. My usual 200 mm F/5 Newtonian + Lodestar X2 with a 0.5x focal reducer although with the way it's set the focal length is about 670 mm so about F/3.5.

The comet was about 0.51 AU from Earth and 1.40 AU from the Sun. It was in Bootes.

It's moving pretty quickly across the sky and so I made a little movie using the gif feature in Jocular. The shots are about five minutes apart (not very accurately). Made from single subs of 5 seconds each.

 

Happy observing!

Bill

 

 

[Mike JW]

Hi Bill,

I took a look at the comet last night with the 15/ultrastar - similar image to yours (not posted). No particular advantage using a big scope for this comet.

Mike