Space Telescope Live User Guide
Space Telescope Live provides official, up-to-date information from the Hubble and Webb science operations centers at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.
You can use Space Telescope Live to find out . . .
- What each telescope is looking at.
- Where these targets are in the sky.
- How the data are being gathered.
- When the observations begin and end.
- Who is leading the investigations.
- Why each target is being investigated.
New Feature! Use the new calendar tool to find out quickly what each telescope was looking at on any given day or time in the past.
Exploring the Observations
Space Telescope Live opens up to the most recent observation, with basic information at the top of the screen (B on the graphic below), an interactive observation schedule (J, K, L) at the bottom, and zoomable sky map centered on the target (G) in the middle. You can…
Explore details of the observation shown
- Open up the Observation Details (E) for more information about what the telescope is looking at, what scientific instruments are being used, when the observation begins and ends, and who is leading the research program. Then,
- Click on Instrument Details to find out what wavelengths of light the instrument can detect and the different components (like cameras and spectrographs) it contains.
- Click on the Research Program to access program information, including status details and the original proposal.
- Click on the Observation Status (D) for an explanation of the current status (or any other status).
- Open up the Sky Map Details (F) to find the source of the sky map, the field of view shown, and the target coordinates.
- Zoom in or out (H) on the sky map, which shows a ground-based image of the target and the sky around it.
- Expand (I) the sky map to fill your whole screen.
- Toggle (M) between Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and your local time.
Move quickly between observations
- Click View Latest (A) to jump to the observation that is currently in progress (or, if the telescope is paused, the last completed observation).
- Swipe left or click Next Target (C) to jump ahead by one observation. Swipe right or click Previous Target (C) to jump back one observation.
- Open the Calendar Tool (J) to select any date, all the way back to the launch of the telescope.
- Click on the Timeline (L) to select an observation that occurred, or is scheduled to occur, over a specific period of time on that day.
- A number on a time block indicates that there is more than one observation over that time period. Click on the block to zoom in on the schedule.
- The color of the observation time block corresponds to the observation’s status (D).
- Choose another day on the Date Selector (K) to move to another day and reveal more choices on the timeline.
- Change the Timescale Range (N) to zoom in and out on the day’s schedule.
Observation Details
Information provided by Space Telescope Live is pulled from observation scheduling and proposal planning databases archived and managed at the Hubble and Webb science operations centers at the Space Telescope Science Institute.
- Target is the formal catalog name provided in the research proposal. You may know this target by another name — many astronomical objects have a number of different catalog names, as well as a common nickname.
- Target Category describes what the target is — e.g., a planet, star, galaxy, or something else — which can be hard to tell from the catalog name alone.
- Research Program is the title of the investigation, pulled directly from the original proposal.
- Start Time
- Observation Status is based on the current date and time, the observation’s scheduled start and end times, and the actual execution status.
- The scheduled start time is in the future. The observation has not yet begun.Scheduled
- According to the schedule, the observation is occurring now. (The scheduled start time is in the past, and the end time is in the future.)In Progress
- According to the schedule, the observation should now be complete. Scheduled end time is in the past, but information regarding the success of the observation — whether or not it was actually executed or executed successfully—is not yet available.Status Pending
- There is confirmation from the observatory that observation data were collected successfully.Successful
- Information transmitted from the observatory indicate that data were not collected successfully or the observation was skipped.Not Successful
- Science Topics provide more specifics about the target and purpose of the investigation.
- Science Instrument is the specific scientific instrument (a camera or spectrograph, for example) being used for the observation.
- Instrument Components describes all the components that make up the scientific instrument, not just those used for this observation.
- Instrument Wavelength indicates the entire range of light wavelengths that the instrument can detect, not the specific wavelengths being observed. Any given observation typically covers only part of this range.
- Schedule provides the start and end dates and times of the observation in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) or your local time. Observation duration is the difference between start and end times.
- Principal Investigator (PI) is the lead on the project. Most projects include several to dozens of other individuals on the project team. You can see the full list when you click on the Research Program.
- Research Program links to the program information, including the list of researchers and the original research proposal. The proposal is the plan that was submitted by the research team. It includes a list of the investigators and their institution affiliations, an overview of the project and its importance, and details about how the target will be observed. Many research programs include a number of targets and/or multiple observations of the same target, which may or may not happen consecutively.
Please note that observation details can change, and may be different from those in the original research proposal. “Not Available” indicates that data for that field are not available, in most cases because the field is not applicable. For more information on completed observations, visit the Hubble and Webb program information pages.
Sky Map Details
The zoomable map, centered on the target, was developed using the Aladin Sky Atlas.
- Survey: The telescope imagery shown on the Sky Map comes from one of two sky surveys.
- Digitized Sky Survey II, which consists of visible-light imagery from the Palomar and UK Schmidt telescopes, is used for the Hubble targets.
- Two Micron All Sky Survey, which consists of near-infrared imagery from telescopes in Arizona and Chile, is used for the Webb targets.
- Field of View (FoV): The width of sky that is visible on the map is given in angular degrees (°) or arcminutes (′). Note that the field of view of the map is not the field of view of the telescope observation. Even when zoomed in, the map shows a much larger area of sky than the telescope.
- For reference, there are 60 arcminutes in 1 angular degree. The full sky, surrounding the entire Earth, is 360 angular degrees. The full Moon has an angular diameter of about 30 arcminutes (30′), or one half of one angular degree (0.5°).
- Note that field of view doesn’t provide any information about an object’s actual size, or the distances between objects. The closer an object is, the larger it appears in the sky.
- Coordinates: The location the telescope is pointing toward is given in celestial coordinates of right ascension (RA) followed by declination (Dec).
- Celestial coordinates are similar to the longitude and latitude coordinates used to describe locations on Earth: Imagine a grid on the inside of a giant transparent sphere surrounding Earth.
- RA: The first number, right ascension, is the celestial equivalent to longitude. RA is given in angular units of hours, minutes, and seconds, in the form of HH MM SS.SSS
- Dec: The second number, declination, is like latitude. It describes the object’s location north or south of the celestial equator. Dec is given in units of + or − degrees, minutes, and seconds, in the form of +/- DD MM SS.SS. The plus sign means that the declination is north of the celestial equator. The minus sign indicates that it is south of the celestial equator.
- Note that RA and Dec don’t provide any information about distance. Objects can be right next to each other in the sky (on the celestial sphere), but actually very far from each other in space.
Background Images
The Home Page displays images of a young star cluster within NGC 346, a nebula in the Small Magellanic Cloud, 200,000 light-years away.
- Hubble image of NGC 346 shows visible and near-infrared light captured by the Advanced Camera for Surveys/Wide Field Camera in 2004. (NASA, ESA, and STScI)
- Webb image of NGC 346 shows near-infrared light captured by NIRCam in 2022. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, USRA, and NASA Ames)
The Observatory Landing Pages feature images of the Crab Nebula (M1), a supernova remnant 6,500 light-years away.
- Hubble image of the Crab Nebula shows visible light captured by the Wide Field Camera 2 in 1999 and 2000. (NASA, ESA, STScI, ASU)
- Webb image of the Crab nebula shows near- and mid-infrared light captured by NIRCam and MIRI in 2022 and 2023. (NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI)
This User Guide features a Hubble/Webb composite image of MACS 0416, a galaxy cluster 4.3 billion light-years from Earth. Optical data were captured by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys between 2012 and 2023. Near-infrared data were captured by Webb’s NIRCam in 2022. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, IFCA, UWA, ASU, and University of Missouri)
Space Telescope Live is developed, maintained, and updated by the Office of Public Outreach at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.
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