Red_Dragon wrote:

My college roommate, bass player in my band and member of my college trivia team, has his pics of Pluto in the Smithsonian, and went on to discover Ultima Thule. The New Horizon spacecraft was on its way to Pluto, and he discovered this object at the furthest edge of our solar system, untouched and unchanged since the beginning of the solar system because it’s out of range of thermal and other atmospheric changes.

After the flyby of Pluto, they diverted the ship another million miles or so to get images of the bilobed  object which he had completely predicted based on occultation data. He showed me the little clay model that he made and with a sly grin said “this is going in the Smithsonian.”

I am a massive space nerd and he brought me and my other half along to the flyby party. What an amazing thing. 

 Steely_D wrote:

Webb represents what we are capable of as a species. It's a marvelous instrument and I'm very excited about what it's going to show us.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope turns on cameras to look at first star target

 Red_Dragon wrote: 
Someone’s got Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” playing on a loop. 

Unknown space object beaming out radio signals every 18 minutes remains a mystery

 miamizsun wrote:

NASA confirms it know what causes worm holes.

 miamizsun wrote:

Still has to reach L2, establish its orbit and cool down. Also a lot of testing and calibration yet to be done - about six months worth.

 Red_Dragon wrote:
and looking for a worm hole?

 miamizsun wrote:

I like that it looks like a bumble bee.  Black and yellow. With octangle bee cave shapes. 

Fully deployed!

Lots of pictures of the assembly of Webb.

Port Primary Mirror Wing Complete!

 Red_Dragon wrote:

norminal

Secondary Mirror Deployment Complete!

Sunshield tensioning complete!

 miamizsun wrote:

wow, if correct an unbelievable capture in 8k, mind blown...
full screen and adjust yt settings to 8k if possible

Taken from L+26hr to L+33hr, 1min exposure, 470 subs, RASA 8 telescope, ZWO ASI183mm pro mono camera, Astronomik H-alpha 12nm filter, iOptron CEM40 equatorial mount.

A friend has a similar setup, on a poured post sunk into the ground with the concrete floor poured on rigid foam and not in contact with the post, to reduce vibration. He's shown me the setup but has never offered to let me sit in his observatory and check things out. I guess it's his "me time" because his wife doesn't even bother him for a look.

 ScottFromWyoming wrote:

God has five hands...

wow, if correct an unbelievable capture in 8k, mind blown...
full screen and adjust yt settings to 8k if possible