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Kelly Lepo (kellylepo@astrodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 10-Oct-2023 18:13:09 UTC Kelly Lepo

Ever wonder how much of the celestial sphere #JWST can see at one time?
Since we don't want to fry our 10-billion-dollar telescope, JWST always has to face away from the Sun, keeping the Sun behind its sunshield. However, as the telescope orbits the Sun, its view changes. JWST can observe about 39% of the full sky on any given day and can access 100% of the sky over 6 months.
https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/videos/1157-Video
In conversation about a year ago from astrodon.social permalink
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1. Text: "Which parts of the sky can the Webb Telescope see?" Starry blue-black sky. Model of planets in orbit around sun. Webb orbits behind the Earth, at a further distance from the sun. Text: “not to scale”. Webb is shown in orbit with orange arrow pointing from Earth, 1.5 million kilometers. Webb is shown on its side, with hot and cold sides separated by the diamond-shaped sunshield. The Hot side is 185 Degrees Farenheit (85 Degrees Celsius) and is bathed in sunlight. The Cold Side is -388 Degrees Farenheit (-233 Degrees Celsius) and is in the shadow of the sunshield. Text: “70-foot sunshield, 21.2 meter”. Split screen with front and top views of Webb, Front view shows 5 degrees of movement, top view shows swaying left to right. Webb's hexagonal mirror and instrument panel rotates within the shadow of its shield, and the top view shows one point tracing a full circle. A beam sweeps out Webb's available range of view at any time, a ring of the sky looking outward from the sun, centered on Webb, above and below the plane of its orbit. Shapes of constellations shift as Webb rotates. Text: “As Webb orbits, it has access to the entire sky”. The months of April through October are shown on the bottom, and Webb's coverage of the sky changes and overlaps as each month is highlighted. A view of Webb in the solar system shows a cone representing its view as it orbits the sun, sweeping above and below the plane of the solar system.

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