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James Webb Space Telescope, LauraMS

James Webb Space Telescope

Description

After a successfull test one week ago with 3min exposures, I tried again yesterday to image the JWST when it now was 1.2 million km away from earth and still on its way to its final position at L2. 

With 6min off-axis guided exposures using the QHY268C (-10°C) camera on my 80mm refractor (f4.9, no filter) it was near the detection limit, but exactly where the ephemeris from NASA predicted (red crossmark). Conditions were bad (moon approx. 30° away, low transparency (3/10)). The animation shows motion during one hour.

Frames were calibrated , debayered and registered in PixInsight. I didn't find the JWST there, therefore I loaded the PI-processed but unstacked mages into Tycho Tracker software, localized the position given by the NASA ephemeris website, and displayed the result as an animation. Screen capture was done using Snagit software.

Although the images may not appear particularly impressive I am quite happy to have found the James Web Space Telescope, at this time and under these suboptimal conditions with such a small telescope. And to be able to image such small (tennis court size) object at that distance.

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