Thread

1. whiterook6 · 1790989715 · focus · HN ↗

   I swear I'm not trying to criticize, but, uh--why only 10 or so photos? Why not just film it long term? Is it our position in earth's orbit that only lets us image that system once a year or so?

   1. adrianN · 1790991607 · focus · HN ↗

      Telescope time is precious.

      1. kadoban · 1790996287 · focus · HN ↗

         I would also assume it's not just "okay hit the button, okay there's that snapshot", it's likely sitting there collecting photons for a _while_ to get each picture.

         1. wthomp · 1791051536 · focus · HN ↗

            Yeah each photo is one - five nights of work full time from 3-5 people.
   2. topspin · 1791006945 · focus · HN ↗

      > but, uh--why only 10 or so photos?

      The instrument is operated according to a detailed schedule that spans years. It takes a committee to create the schedule, and each separately scheduled observation is then organized by a team, with different teams organizing different observations.

      They cannot simply aim the instrument at one system and forego everything else. The result you see is a campaign credited to at least four team members, and enough schedule time committed to make approximately one observation per year.

   3. wthomp · 1791051603 · focus · HN ↗

      The main reason, is why bother? We know there’s four planets, we know they orbit according to Keplers laws, we know how bright they are. The public outreach is reasonably well handled by this motion smoothed video. Better to use that telescope time to look for new planets instead!

      1. wthomp · 1791052039 · focus · HN ↗

         That said yes there is something about earths orbit. There’s a few month window that gives the best observation of this star. We time the observations to be roughly June- November most years.

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