{"id":6772,"date":"2022-01-08T15:51:01","date_gmt":"2022-01-08T15:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/?p=6772"},"modified":"2022-01-08T16:18:19","modified_gmt":"2022-01-08T16:18:19","slug":"webb-ariane-20220108","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/webb-ariane-20220108\/","title":{"rendered":"More Webb Telescope Stalking and Ariane Booster?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had some success using another Web page to make predictions of where The Webb Space Telescope is as it goes out to its L2 orbit.<\/p>\n

Nasa’s Horizon Web page (https:\/\/ssd.jpl.nasa.gov\/horizons\/app.html#\/<\/a><\/strong>) managed to get me close, but I still had to search around to see if i could spot something moving between the images.<\/p>\n

I was given ProjectPluto (https:\/\/projectpluto.com\/sat_eph.htm<\/a><\/strong>) by Nick James from the BAA.<\/p>\n

I plotted positions and compared them to Horizon.<\/p>\n

When the skies cleared, I got out and found Webb almost exactly where ProjectPluto had predicted it would be.
\nThe exact position I found it a little before 21:00h UT is shown in the circles below:<\/p>\n

\"Webb-Prediction-20220107\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The image below shows Webb’s trail across the sky by compositing the individual images together:
\n(Processed images rotated with North at the top).
\nYou can definitely see some changes in brightness throughout the track.
\n\"WST-Trail-20220107\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Then this animation:
\n\"Webb-Stack-For-Animation-20220107-Small\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As this prediction was so spot on, I decided to see if i could catch the upper stage of the Ariane rocket that placed Webb on this perfect trajectory.
\n(2021-130A = NORAD 50463)<\/p>\n

I knew it would be a tough target, as it was reported at about +17th magnitude on the 2nd of January.<\/p>\n

It Might or might not be revealed. But here’s my two animations of the position, slap bang on where ProjectPluto predicted it would be.
\nOne is a wide field, the other cropped closer in, with the starting position indicated with an arrow.
\nI think you can see a very faint object passing that star.
\nI only manged to capture 4 images, before the clouds rolled in again.<\/p>\n

If it’s not the upper stage, then it’s probably noise. ?<\/p>\n

It did clear a bit later, but I’d packed everything away by then. ?<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Ariane-Stack-20220107-Cropped-Close\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had some success using another Web page to make predictions of where The Webb Space Telescope is as it goes out to its L2 orbit. Nasa’s Horizon Web page (https:\/\/ssd.jpl.nasa.gov\/horizons\/app.html#\/) managed to get me close, but I still had to search around to see if i could spot something moving between the images. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"title":"More Webb Telescope Stalking and Ariane Booster? - Star-Gazing","description":"I had some success using another Web page to make predictions of where The Webb Space Telescope is as it goes out to its L2 orbit. Nasa's Horizon Web page ( htt"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6772","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\/6772","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=6772"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6786,"href":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6772\/revisions\/6786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}