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In this ancient 2017 answer to What happens to JWST after it runs out of propellant? I've plotted an eleven year long reference orbit for JWST that was available form Horizons at the time.

Now that the spacecraft has launched, Horizons accesses the latest and greatest real trajectory solutions based on tracking data and numerical fitting. But now it only goes for about a month since there will be trajectory correction maneuvers associated with halo orbit insertion.

Is there some button I can push that will point the Horizons interface to the old reference orbit? That way, as I've done in this answer to Which direction/constellation is the James Webb is headed towards I can just click the RA/Dec and the Alt/Az boxes in the output dialogue and get the motion of JWST in the sky seen from Paris at Midnight (for no specific reason other than it would be cool to see).

Alternatively, is there now a really nice Python interface that knows about ftp and spice kernels that can help me find that old reference trajectory and extract the RA/Dec and the Alt/Az values for a lat/lon position at fixed time steps?

Question: How can I find the old reference orbit for JWST (from 2014) and get alt-az positions from Earth without learning Spice?

  • Can Horizons do it?
  • Can Python?
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    $\begingroup$ is there a particular reason you wish to avoid spice? this seems like a good opportunity to actually dive into it, rather than collect workarounds. $\endgroup$
    – Ryan C
    Dec 27, 2021 at 21:40
  • $\begingroup$ @RyanC In six decades I have only managed to learn English, Math and Python. I may not have another 20 to learn something new. No new tricks for this old (and quite busy) dog. Thanks! $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Dec 27, 2021 at 21:48
  • $\begingroup$ @RyanC and I'd hardly call using a well written Python package a "workaround". Have you noticed how much of the past fifty years of computer programs have been wrapped in Python packages? Perhaps this is a good opportunity for you to actually dive into python! $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Dec 27, 2021 at 21:51
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    $\begingroup$ I've been writing in Python since 2003, long enough to have the language change out from under me several times. Dictionary comprehensions make me happy on a very visceral level. :) $\endgroup$
    – Ryan C
    Dec 27, 2021 at 21:59
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    $\begingroup$ Oh, ... I thought you might be wanting to dive into the real Python. It's a lot more entertaining. Or should that be distracting? $\endgroup$
    – Fred
    Dec 27, 2021 at 23:02

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I know you said you didn't want to use SPICE, but since no one has posted an answer I thought I should mention this. I found a repository on ESA's site with SPICE kernel that contains the old Horizons reference data you're looking for (it says the data comes from Horizons in the README).

https://repos.cosmos.esa.int/socci/projects/SPICE_KERNELS/repos/jwst/browse

Given that .bsp, and a kernel for an Earth-centered Earth-fixed frame (pck00010.tpc contains IAU_EARTH), you would be able to do your calculations.

Here is a quick Python script that reads in the bsp and outputs a csv so you could just run this once and not use SPICE anymore. You would need to have your own copies of naif0012.tls (leapseconds kernel), de432s.bsp, pck00010.tpc, or you can use this repo that has them and the spice_data file in it contains the filepaths ( https://github.com/alfonsogonzalez/AWP ). The bsp has data from 2020-01-01 to 2024-01-01, so just depends on how much of it you want and your timestep.

import spice_data as sd
import spiceypy   as spice
import numpy      as np

if __name__ == '__main__':
    spice.furnsh( sd.leapseconds_kernel )
    spice.furnsh( sd.de432 )
    spice.furnsh( sd.pck00010 )
    spice.furnsh( 'jwst_horizons_20200101_20240101_v01.bsp' )

    et0     = spice.str2et( '2022-01-01' )
    etf     = spice.str2et( '2022-01-15' )
    dt      = 3600
    ets     = np.arange( et0, etf, dt )
    states  = np.array( spice.spkezr(
                '-170', ets, 'IAU_EARTH', 'NONE', '399' )[ 0 ] )
    arr     = np.zeros( ( len( ets ), 7 ) )

    arr[ :, 0  ] = ets
    arr[ :, 1: ] = states

    np.savetxt( 'jwst-iau-earth.csv', arr, delimiter = ',' )

    if False:
        import plotting_tools as pt
        pt.plot_orbits( [ states[ :, :3 ] ], { 'show': True } )

enter image description here

The SPICE function recrad converts from rectangular to range, right ascension, declination: https://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/naif/toolkit_docs/C/cspice/recrad_c.html

You can get the IAU_EARTH vector of a point on Earth defined by lat/lon using SPICE's reclat function (converts from rectangular to latitudinal coordinates: https://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/naif/toolkit_docs/C/cspice/reclat_c.html ). I believe that implementation is straight forward to you wouldn't have to use SPICE here if you don't want.

Its been a while since I've looked at azimuth/elevation calculations, here is an attempt at the algorithm (feel free to edit and correct):

All vectors in IAU_EARTH reference frame.

Position vector pointing from site to JWST: $\vec{r}_{rel}=\vec{r}_{JWST}-\vec{r}_{site}$

The site position vector $\vec{r}_{site}$ defines the local surface plane. Local north is equal to the projection of the z-unit vector onto local surface plane.

$\hat{N}=\hat{z}-(\hat{z} \cdot \hat{r}_{site})\hat{r}_{site}$

Similarly, the projection of $\vec{r}_{rel}$:

$p\vec{ro}j_{rel}=\hat{r}_{rel}-(\hat{r}_{rel} \cdot \hat{r}_{site})\hat{r}_{site}$

Azimuth is equal to the angle between local north and that projection (have to check for CW or CCW)

Elevation is equal to the angle between $\hat{r}_{rel}$ and $p\vec{ro}j_{rel}$. Again this would need a check for if JWST is visible at that time or on the other side of the Earth.

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    $\begingroup$ Okay, progress! What I'm hoping for is something that will "extract the RA/Dec and the Alt/Az values for a lat/lon position at fixed time steps" can these packages go that far? $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Dec 28, 2021 at 18:33
  • $\begingroup$ @uhoh I just added some info to the answer. I haven't checked that az/el algorithm, so definitely feel free to correct if its not right. $\endgroup$
    – Alfonso Gonzalez
    Dec 28, 2021 at 19:58
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    $\begingroup$ Oh ideally I'm looking for the complete calculation; WGS84 ellipsoid and all (which is why I wondered if I could just point Horizons to the older kernels) but this roll-your-own solution would certainly be good for drawing an image in the sky representing JWST's path. At 1.5 million km the parallax due to a 10 km correction will certainly be small. Thanks! I will give this a try soon. $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Dec 28, 2021 at 22:00

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