Streaming cameras on MaunaKea in Hawaii show the abundance of satellites trailing across the sky making astronomy a challenge. I recorded two one-minute exposures from my computer screen to illustrate the problem. Follow this link for more details.
Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS has passed between Earth and the Sun during the first days of October. This orbit diagram from Gideon van Buitenen shows the recent path. Visit his page here for much more detail.
Just a little something in the night sky. My iPad using NightCap imaged for 269 seconds. Shutter speed was 1 second. The ISS is the bright line. It traveled from right to left. Two jet airliners also passed over but from lower left toward upper right.
Smarter Every Day author Destin interviewed his dad in 2016 who was working on the sunshield layers that were eventually placed on the James Webb Space Telescope. His dad worked as a metrologist who specialized in using sophisticated tools to accurately measure dimensions of products. In this video, several people explain the complex procedures used to measure the sunshield layers and how the data was fit to models and applied to the L2 point in space. It is a fascinating look behind the scenes at an essential part of the JWST. There is one ad break at the 15 minute time.
The JWST team successfully completed the third phase of mirror alignment by tilting each of the 18 segments to produce one image. This set of stacked images will further be refined by adjusting the heights of the segments to within one wavelength of light. This step is called Coarse Phasing. Details of the recently completed processes are here in their blog.
How I See It 