advertisement


James Webb telescope...

ISTR an interview with someone who'll be using the images and they stated something along the lines of that the 'wow' will be the fact they go back to the origins of the universe. What they expect you'll actually see is a lot of white spherical galaxies (mostly hydrogen). Of course, their predictions might be wrong.
 
As I understand it the astounding ‘wow’ images of nebulas etc from Hubble are colour-shifted and manipulated to make stuff invisible to our eyes visible. I assume the James Webb output will use similar techniques even more so given what it is designed to look for.
 
This is the L2 orbit.

giphy_1_0.gif


All this to get the telescope far enough away from the Earth and Sun to take a good picture.

Joe
 
Sean,

Aye, it's amazing what you or your camera can see if you get away from city lights. I took this photo two summers ago. What appears to be a sunset is the very faint light of a city about 150 km away. It's definitely not a sunset because the camera was pointing east and the photo was taken around 11 p.m.

50170316097_51e1e32a08_b.jpg


The smaller dot in the centre about a quarter of the way from the bottom of the pic is Saturn. A bit to its right is Jupiter.

Joe
 
I'm still not convinced that it will be far enough from earth not to suffer light pollution from the big b*st*rd parking lot floodlights that the nursing home behind my home installed, thereby ruining any attempt at backyard astronomy.


Don't such things fall under your 2nd Amendment rights..? <g>
Any cctv in the last decade plus works under 3lux, i.e. moonlight... (had a sim chat with the high school across the road from my parents at lest that long ago for sim reasons... not astronomy so much, as simply wanting to sleep at night)
 
There's another aspect that may not be obvious.. the James Webb at 7.5m would score in the largest telescopes of any kind on Earth in the last 20 yrs (record stood at 6.5m up to c. 2000 , full list here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_optical_reflecting_telescopes

- and given the active optics and resultant accuracy, would be an utter triumph here on Earth in the visible spectrum - let alone, left to sort itself out on a flight to L2 orbit!


Teenage Kecks, all through the night... eh.
 
Mutty,

Better than royalty. Just look at the kid's face ... OMG, Mr Spock!

qZWPxuu.jpg


Joe
 
For me, I am really looking forward to another Ultra Deep Field image and what this may unveil. Hopefully, they'll take this of a much larger area this time as well. Also, any images of planets having gone supernova.

I also can't wait for those unexpected revelations, that I am sure it will reveal. Especially as it looks further back in time, to just 100 million years after the so called Big Bang, if indeed that actually happened at all.

It really is an exciting time to be alive, so I hope that the situation with Russia doesn't escalate to the point where this will be impacted.
 
Sean,

Aye, it's amazing what you or your camera can see if you get away from city lights.

Yes! I still recall my first trip away from London which took me to the caldera on Teneriffe. We arrived after sunset at the hotel in the caldera. I got out of the car when we'd switched off the lights and stood out in the dark for a while. As I did, more and more and more stars became visible as my eyes adapted. It was beyond anything I'd expected. The few I'd been able to see from London were swamped. And I could see why 'The Milky Way' got its name! Unforgettable.

Ironically, the stars were far more visible from their than from the much higher, drier, peak of Mauna Kea. Because at the higher altitude your eyes lose some sensitivity due to lack of oxygen.

It should be on everyone's 'bucket list' to go to somewhere where they can really *see* the stars above them via mk 1 eyeball so they can experience the entire clear sky like that.
 
The cottage I bought last year is in the Cairngorms Dark Sky Park, with various locations in some of the quiet valleys nearby that have negligible light pollution (and even veiwing from my back garden should be decent I think), so I'm thinking about getting a half decent telescope so am currently researching that with a plan to get one this year.
 
I remember seeing Andromeda's galaxy with the naked eye from a little place south of Saumur in W. France (Ternay) on a wonderfully clear and still summer night. The nearest small town (Loudun) was maybe 10 km away, the owner of the local chateau/B&B where we were staying believed in switching all lights off at night to save electricity, etc. The Milky Way was like something from Las Vegas.
 
The cottage I bought last year is in the Cairngorms Dark Sky Park, with various locations in some of the quiet valleys nearby that have negligible light pollution (and even veiwing from my back garden should be decent I think), so I'm thinking about getting a half decent telescope so am currently researching that with a plan to get one this year.
If you do go ahead and get a proper scope, your location will enable you to see deep sky objects (nebulae, galaxies etc.) much better, so prioritize aperture!
 
I live close to the Galloway Dark Sky Park observatory and used to occasionaly pop in whilst out on my mtb bivvy night rides but dickheads burned it down, the amount of stars you can see with the naked eye on a frosty winters night out in the hills is utterly jaw dropping in scale and its a real shame that in parts of this country folk are suffering from light pollution and have never spent a night on top of a hill under the stars whilst tucked up in a bivvy bag with a hip flask of Balvenie for warmth, i admit it's not everyones idea of how to spend an evening but do it just once and you'll be hooked for life.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-57579980

https://forestryandland.gov.scot/visit/forest-parks/galloway-forest-park/dark-skies
 
FWIW places like the caldera I mentioned had the advantage of being 'high and dry' as well as the absence of light 'pollution'. In the UK we tend even on 'clear' nights to have layers of water haze, etc, above us even when no clouds seem obvious. That said, a clear night in a dark place in the UK countryside is dramatically different to the middle of the East End of London!

One of the attractions when we bought out current house is that a previous occupant had build a dome in the garden! When he emigrated (to Arizona I think) he took the telescope but left the dome. I did dream of fitting another telescope. But amateur astronomy is hard work compared to being able to visit telescopes which others maintain for you. And I was more of an injuneer than an astronomer. :)
 
An obvious question at this point, is how do you get from gigabytes of numbers to those awesome colourised pictures? I mean it's not like NASA just attach Nikon's[*] best sensor and attach an image to an email, right? here's Dr Smethurst on how they do it:


[*] Obviously not Canon. These people are not animals.
 
For me, I am really looking forward to another Ultra Deep Field image and what this may unveil. Hopefully, they'll take this of a much larger area this time as well. Also, any images of planets having gone supernova.

I also can't wait for those unexpected revelations, that I am sure it will reveal. Especially as it looks further back in time, to just 100 million years after the so called Big Bang, if indeed that actually happened at all.

It really is an exciting time to be alive, so I hope that the situation with Russia doesn't escalate to the point where this will be impacted.
Planets going supernova?
 


advertisement


Back
Top