James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) C11 F10

[Dennis]

Here is a stack of 60x60 sec exposures showing the path of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) taken from Brisbane on 13th July 2025.

Celestron Edge HD C11 at F10 with the ASI 2600 mm Duo.

The 1st image is a full res 1280x960 crop from the frame.
The 2nd image has been upsampled x2 to better display the path.

Dennis.

The Sky X Pro provided the following report after an Image Link on the full res FITs file:
******** ASTROMETRIC SOLUTION RESULTS ********
Center RA (2000.0): 18h 06m 43.69s
Center Dec (2000.0): -34° 06' 16.9"
Scale: 0.5470 arcseconds/pixel
Size (pixels): 3124 x 2088
Angular Size: 0° 28' 29" x 0° 19' 02"
Position Angle: 0° 13' from north through east
Mirror Image: No
RMS: 0.36 (X: 0.31 Y: 0.19)
Number of Stars Used in Solution: 999 (100%)
FWHM: 3.79 pixels, 2.07 arcseconds
*********************************** ************

[AstroViking]

Bravo! Well done, Dennis. :thumbsup:

[Dennis]

Thanks Steve, I was surprised at how bright the JWST was, I could see it in real time on the Notebook screen as each 60 sec exposure downloaded and displayed, even in that dense star field.

Here is a screen capture from The Sky X Pro which I used to slew the scope to.

I downloaded the Ephemeris from the JPL Horizons website and created a Custom Database in TSX which displayed the positions at 1-hour intervals.

Dennis.

[Pierre_C]

Well done, Dennis. Wow.

[peter_4059]

Amazing capture as always Dennis. Well done.

[Dennis]

Thank you Pierre and Peter, recording and processing the JWST was so much more straightforward than chasing interstellar Comet C/2025 N1 (ATLAS).

Almost enjoyable!;)

Cheers

Dennis

[astronobob]

Extraordinary Dennis, Who'd o thunk to do this apart from the man himself,,, Brilliant but the better image would be James Web taking a photo of C11 taking a photo of James Web,, ,, :lol: ;)

Dennis - Keeping an Eye on this Space :stargaze: , ,:cool2:

[Dennis]

Hah Bob – my thoughts exactly, who was looking at who?;)

I believe that the JWST has a huge “sun shield” that protects the mirror, electronics and other systems from the heat and light of our Sun, and I wonder if somehow this was making it brighter and more visible in my frames.

As I watched the little dot that is the JWST crawl across the Notebook screen, it occasionally brightened as it passed in front of a background star, with their combined light output makng it stand out more on the screen.

Cheers

Dennis.

[astronobob]

Interesting yet again Dennis, yes I would assume the shield would be very reflective, and no doubt being the light source you are capturing, although its main purpose is to reflect heat, as infrared, it would almost certainly reflect most other light bands, and prob main light spectrum at least very well,,
I believe the shield would be position at exactly 90 degrees from the line to the Sun, or 'Square to it, if that sounds better,, Soooo I wonder if the reflection of Webs shield would change for us here during earths orbit around the sun, and/or Webs orbit around the Lagrange point relative to earth and sun :question:
Might discover a ' Variable Telescope' :lol:

[Leo.G]

Wow, not even needle in haystack type thing, that's grain of sand in a haystack....
Amazing shots Dennis!

[Dennis]

Thanks Leo, these projects are made so much more straightforward these days with the HW and SW available to us amateurs in our back garden.

Having access to on-line data such as the JPL Horizons website for up to date and accurate Ephemeris data is amazing.

Dennis.

[joshman]

Phenomenal work! This would make a great animation!

[Dennis]

Thanks Josh, it has been a long time since I created an animation, I'll have to refresh my memory and have a go.:)

Dennis.

[AstroJason]

As others have said, great work Dennis, that's pretty impressive!

[Dennis]

Thanks Jason, I appreciate your comments.:)

Dennis.