{"id":6766,"date":"2022-01-06T20:06:19","date_gmt":"2022-01-06T20:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/?p=6766"},"modified":"2022-01-06T20:19:09","modified_gmt":"2022-01-06T20:19:09","slug":"new-challenge-20220206","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/new-challenge-20220206\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Challenge? The Ariane Upper Stage."},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve had great fun trying to capture The Webb Space Telescope since launch.
\nA new challenge beckons.
\nI am going to see if I can also catch the upper stage booster of the Ariane rocket.<\/p>\n

You can generate an ephemeris of both Webb and the upper stage using the ProjectPluto Web page:
\nhttps:\/\/projectpluto.com\/sat_eph.htm<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

So it would be good to see how this Webb prediction compares to NASA’s Horizons tool:
\nhttps:\/\/ssd.jpl.nasa.gov\/horizons\/app.html#\/<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

I have generated their ephemerides for tonight and have put these positions into my planetarium program to produce the map below.
\nThe second map shows a wider view with the Ariane upper stage mapped as well.<\/p>\n

As you can see it is trailing quite a way behind the Webb Space Telescope.
\nBut I have heard that the booster was fainter than magnitude +17 on Sunday night, so I think it might be a thankless task.<\/p>\n

But you’ll never know unless you try!<\/p>\n

We might get another chance to see it later though!
\nAfter going into solar orbit it will come back close to Earth around 2047.<\/p>\n

When I get a moment, I’ll do an ephemeris for last night and see how accurate PlutoProject is was compared to the images I captured.<\/p>\n

But, before that, if we get some clear skies in a bit, you know where I’ll be, and where my scope will be pointed…<\/p>\n

\"JWST-Predictions-20220106\"<\/a> \"Ariane-Prediction-20210206\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve had great fun trying to capture The Webb Space Telescope since launch. A new challenge beckons. I am going to see if I can also catch the upper stage booster of the Ariane rocket. You can generate an ephemeris of both Webb and the upper stage using the ProjectPluto Web page: https:\/\/projectpluto.com\/sat_eph.htm So it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"description":"A new difficult challenge beckons. I am going to see if I can also catch the upper stage booster of the Ariane rocket.","title":"A New Challenge? The Ariane Upper Stage. - Star-Gazing"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6766"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6771,"href":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6766\/revisions\/6771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}