Tomorrow Dec 25th 2021, is a very big day! James Webb Scope is headed out.

[BDWoody]

What I thought was cool is that the mission control have a Webb look-alike robot that has the same moving parts as the actual scope and mimics the movements on Earth as data is telemetered from the spacecraft.

I believe that is an animation based on the data received, but it isn't an actual model.

 

[JRS]

I believe that is an animation based on the data received, but it isn't an actual model.

My bad if that is the case. I really misunderstood the gal, or maybe it was the engineer in me that confabulated the data into something it wasn't. It struck me as expensive, but potentially quite useful. I really have to chuckle on that, thank you.

 

[tomtoo]

Full deployment!

Now lets put it on the klippel!!

Oh, its not a speaker?
Why i then follow?

 

[Andreas007]

Yes, fully deployed. Amazing to see what mankind can accomplish with great engineering and massive international cooperation. Making the impossible possible!

Eat this, science denialists!

Isn't it really breathtaking that all worked smoothly, so far?
I wouldn't have bet on it. Especially the complicated sunshield.
Watched the livestream yesterday. Very emotional to see all the happy people at NASA. Years of work came to a conclusion.

Looking forward to that this mission will continue as successfully as it has been so far.
JST will have same or even more impact than HST. Not only to science but also to society!

 

[tomtoo]

@Andreas007
No , please no breath taking anymore. A 14day nerve killing movie is enough. Just let it work! Please!

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Still have to move the 18 mirrors from their launch to observation positions and fine tune them, then L2 insertion, then bring every instrument online, and wait for it all to cool down enough to do quality science. Still a very long way to go, but some anxious moments are behind us,.

 

[NTK]

JWST is reaching its final destination. Tomorrow is the orbit insertion day!

 

[Andreas007]

Yes, really exciting! Can’t wait to see JWT in it’s final orbit!

 

[antcollinet]

Yes, really exciting! Can’t wait to see JWT in it’s final orbit!

You're going to need a bit telescope - perhaps the hubble...

 

[PierreV]

You're going to need a bit telescope - perhaps the hubble...

In theory, a small one should be OK - there has been a bunch of amateur images of JWST "on-the-road". At L2 it should be just a bit around magnitude 17. Here's a photometrically calibrated field (but uncalibrated in terms or pretty picture) of an exposure of 300 seconds, from a city (limiting magnitude around 19.5) on a 20 years old CCD camera with a 115/805 mm apochromatic refractor. The circled "173" star is roughly as bright as the JWST will be in orbit.

From a darker site, a cheap 200mm newtonian using a current CMOS camera should get an image that is -- +/- 4 (aperture) times 1.8 (camera peak quantum efficiency) times 2.5exp(n) (n being the limiting magnitude delta between the city sky and darker site) -- around 45 times brighter or the same image in 7 seconds or so.

Not quite sure what the relative motion of the Webb will be to us when it is on its L2 orbit though.

Here's a cool video of the JWST in motion against a nice backgroud

 

[dc655321]

Not quite sure what the relative motion of the Webb will be to us when it is on its L2 orbit though.

I thought the orbit was perpendicular to the ecliptic, above and below. Basically a circle(-ish) path instead of a purple square in your luminosity image, above.

I get to be wrong though

 

[BDWoody]

I thought the orbit was perpendicular to the ecliptic, above and below. Basically a circle(-ish) path instead of a purple square in your luminosity image, above.

I get to be wrong though

20 second animation...

 

[dc655321]

20 second animation...

Yeah, exactly. That!
Thanks for the graphic.

Less than 1000 mi to go. Very exciting!

 

[dc655321]

Made it!

 

[AudiOhm]

First Official Image...(in the humour thread)

 

[Andreas007]

Article in German magazine about exclusive first photo from JWT.
Reporting that scientists are wondering about letters in deep space and the uniform appearance of space in all directions!

Der Postillion

 

[NTK]

Photons received!

Photons Received: Webb Sees Its First Star – 18 Times – James Webb Space Telescope

blogs.nasa.gov

 

[tomtoo]

I told them they should not use ethanol in the cooling system.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Photons received!

Photons Received: Webb Sees Its First Star – 18 Times – James Webb Space Telescope

blogs.nasa.gov

Sooo. Each of the 18 mirrors is seeing the same star, and when the alignment process is complete this same mosaic will only show one image. Can't hardly wait.

 

[symphara]

Here's a video of them explaining the process. It's pretty cool, including a JWT selfie.