Contains:  Solar system body or event
JWST | sunshield deployed | 857,000 km from Earth, Mike Hamende

JWST | sunshield deployed | 857,000 km from Earth

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Description

I've recently built a rig specifically for asteroid discovery and NEO followup and successfully registered my backyard as the Willowed Plains Observatory  (MPC Station W09) and before I started the survey sequence I thought I'd try putting some time on the JWST. This is about 1.5 hours of motion of the James Webb Space Telescope.  I had read it would likely be possible to see JWST when the sunshield deployed and boy were they right.  It is about magnitude 14 and should be observable visually with a modest telescope.  Since it is still this bright almost a million km away I'm going to guess we'll still be able to see it as it orbits L2.

If you look closely to the left of JWST you'll see 1993 FT24 cruising along as well.

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