I’m glad that Webb is working, but I continue to believe it was a mistake.
[Update a while later]
To clarify, I think it was a mistake to do it in the way it was done, but now that it’s operational, obviously it would be a mistake to abandon it now.
5 thoughts on “First Light”
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As many of you may know, it is really, really hard to get a good polar alignment of a telescope. Polaris is nearly two full-moon diameters away from the North Celestial Pole.
Paul, Paul, you are showing your age. I too am of that generation of equatorial mount masseuses that considered ourselves lucky if our mount allowed for a bore-scope. Alas not so my last Eq. Mount: a Starliner for my 6″ reflector.
You tell that to a millennial today and you just get a blank stare. You just take your Cassegrain light bucket make sure it’s altazimuth mount is level and punch in your longitude and latitude (or just let the built-in GPS figure it out) and go. Point it by punching in the object your want to see from your laptop or if you are really “old-school” the declination and right-ascension and the scope points itself and starts to auto-track in both vertical and horizontal with no jumpiness in the eyepiece.
Polar alignment? Geez old guy. Where you been? 😉
by punching in the object your want to see from your laptop
Geez I’m even out-dating myself. I meant via a Bluetooth app on your smartphone. (Well maybe not quite yet)
OTOH why bother with a telescope if you have a smartphone cam?
https://freeappsforme.com/telescope-apps/
but I continue to believe it was a mistake.
Rand, to be sure and as the casual reader may not know, you are referring to its construction & cost thereof, not its operation.
10 billion dollars for 10 years of viewing.
Are we going to build more of them?
If it’s start of more of them, it’s more value, then if just one.
Could swarm of smaller telescopes, work better?