Observation by Nick James: JWST Ariane upper stage at 1.1 million k...

Uploaded by

Nick James

Observer

Nick James

Observed

2022 Jan 05 - 22:20

Uploaded

2022 Jan 05 - 23:45

Objects

Spacecraft

Equipment

ASI6200MM + Celestron HD11

Exposure

Two stacks of 5x60s

Location

Chelmsford, UK

Target name

2021-130B

Title

JWST Ariane upper stage at 1.1 million km

About this image

The upper stage of the Ariane rocket that launched JWST on Christmas day is now over a million km out from Earth (1.08 million to be precise) and is around mag 17.4. It is heading for a 380 day heliocentric orbit and it should fade below mag 20 in early February. The magnitude of JWST varies quite a bit since it is highly dependent on the angle that the sunshade makes with the sun and us. It was around 14.2 tonight. Deployment is still going very well and the secondary mirror support structure is now locked in place. Injection of JWST into an L2 halo orbit will take place around Jan 25.

Files associated with this observation

2021130b.gif (6.8 MB)

Like this image

Mike Harlow, David Basey, Peter Mulligan, Ron Johnson, Ron Arbour, Grant Privett, Nick Quinn, Peter Carson, Dr Paul Leyland

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