Webb Space Telescope Thread II

Tiltsta said:
Just 2224 miles to go to L2...with more than 905,000 miles distance from Earth.

The news here was talking about JWST this morning, as a bunch of parts inside are made by Swiss companies, plus news here is generally filled with lots of these type of stories as not much news happens.
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How many jewels?

How-A-Mechanical-Watch-Works-640x520.jpg
 
It is in orbit around L2 now!

Now we have a long wait while the instruments continue to cool, and they calibrate and align everything. We should see the first images sometime in the summer. They have some targets in mind for those first images, but they are a secret. :grin:
 
It's not stationary though, it's in orbit around the L2, And this shot is tracking it, hence the star trails on all the other light points.
 
pmc100 said:
It's not stationary though, it's in orbit around the L2, And this shot is tracking it, hence the star trails on all the other light points.
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Depends on your reference. It is stationary compared to the earth and sun, while in a constant orbit around the sun.
 
335clone said:
Depends on your reference. It is stationary compared to the earth and sun, while in a constant orbit around the sun.
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https://webb.nasa.gov/content/about/orbit.html

"And Webb will orbit around L2, not sit stationary precisely at L2. Webb's orbit is represented in this screenshot from our deployment video (below), roughly to scale; it is actually similar in size to the Moon's orbit around the Earth! This orbit (which takes Webb about 6 months to complete once) keeps the telescope out of the shadows of both the Earth and Moon. Unlike Hubble, which goes in and out of Earth shadow every 90 minutes, Webb will have an unimpeded view that will allow science operations 24/7."
 
To add to the debate, I meant it was the stationary object in the photo....but to be fair I had no idea that it was orbiting around L2 and not parked there in a specific spot, or how large the orbit is relative to the field of the pic. So, I guess I was wrong twice, at least. Glad I am not a rocket scientist, or we would never have a space telescope. :)
 
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pmc100 said:


https://webb.nasa.gov/content/about/orbit.html

"And Webb will orbit around L2, not sit stationary precisely at L2. Webb's orbit is represented in this screenshot from our deployment video (below), roughly to scale; it is actually similar in size to the Moon's orbit around the Earth! This orbit (which takes Webb about 6 months to complete once) keeps the telescope out of the shadows of both the Earth and Moon. Unlike Hubble, which goes in and out of Earth shadow every 90 minutes, Webb will have an unimpeded view that will allow science operations 24/7."
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Yes, this is true. But L2 is stationary compared to the earth and sun. So while it is not stationary as one would think of a geosat parked over one spot on earth, it is relatively stationary.
 
335clone said:
Yes, this is true. But L2 is stationary compared to the earth and sun. So while it is not stationary as one would think of a geosat parked over one spot on earth, it is relatively stationary.
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Well, everything is relatively stationary :grin: But the JWST is moving relative the L2, Earth, Moon and Sun.
 
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Progress is progressing.

Where Is Webb? NASA/Webb

“It’s full of stars!”
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This mosaic represents a sparkling turning point as we #UnfoldTheUniverse. Webb’s mirrors are now fully aligned! Next is instrument calibration, the final phase before Webb is ready for science.
“Fully aligned” means that Webb’s mirrors are now directing fully focused light collected from space down into each instrument. Each instrument is also successfully capturing images with the light being delivered to them.
In this mosaic, each engineering image is a demonstration that one of Webb’s instruments is fully aligned with the telescope and in focus. In view is a part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small, irregular satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. The sizes and positions of the images represent the relative arrangement of each of Webb’s instruments in the plane where the telescope focuses light. In comparing the images, you may see that each instrument points at a slightly offset part of the sky relative to the rest.
Like our last engineering image, this mosaic is in a red color palette that was chosen to optimize visual contrast. As a reminder, colors in space telescope images sometimes recreate the way our eyes see; other times they are selected to highlight features of an object.
The optical performance of the telescope continues to be better than the engineering team’s most optimistic predictions. From this point forward the only changes to the mirrors will be very small, periodic adjustments to the primary mirror segments.

Image Credit: NASA/STScI

mirrorAlignmentCompleteFullFieldImage-1400px.jpg
 
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