Editing 2645: The Best Camera

{{comic
| number    = 2645
| date      = July 13, 2022
| title     = The Best Camera
| image     = the_best_camera.png
| titletext = The best camera is the one at L2.
}}

==Explanation==

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6921300-the-best-camera-is-the-one-that-s-with-you ''The Best Camera Is The One That's With You''] is a book by photographer {{w|Chase Jarvis}}, celebrating mobile phone cameras, not for their technical quality, but rather for the fact that people usually [[1235|have them when interesting subjects appear]]. This advice is often given to novice photographers; sometimes phrased as, "The best camera is the one you use most." A cheap camera is better than an expensive professional camera if it is more often with the photographer, for example if it is light-weight enough to be carried on hiking trips. A fancy expensive camera that isn't available to use is of no value for taking pictures.

In this case, however, "the best camera" refers to the {{w|James Webb Space Telescope}} (JWST), the spacecraft depicted in the third panel, which cost $10 billion—[https://screenrant.com/james-webb-space-telescope-cost-how-much/ $9.5 billion over budget]—and was [[2014: JWST Delays|fifteen years late]]. It can be considered a camera because it takes pictures, and it's the best {{w|space telescope}} to date in terms of {{w|aperture}} size and thus {{w|angular resolution}}.[https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/26373/relation-between-angular-resolution-and-aperture] The first pictures taken by the telescope were released on 11-12 July 2022, a few days before this comic was published.[https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages] The pictures from JWST show objects as they were [https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2022/035/01G7HRYVGM1TKW556NVJ1BHPDZ as much as 13.1 billion years ago,] which is unprecedented by space telescopes, although {{w|HD1 (galaxy)|further objects}} have been identified by terrestrial telescopes. The telescope has [https://www.stsci.edu/jwst/instrumentation three instruments that can act as "cameras" for imaging,] a fourth {{w|optical spectrometer|spectrometer}} instrument, and many dozens of {{w|optical filter}}s. Because the telescope can only take infrared photographs invisible to the human eye, [https://jwst-docs.stsci.edu/files/97978094/97978104/1/1596073152120/NIRCam_filters_modules.png each of the filters has been assigned a standardized visible color] to convert images for viewing. However, astronomers are encouraged to use [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dmiS_6YrGU&t=449s other color schemes] when observing a limited portion of the filters' range or rendering {{w|interferometry}},[https://jwst-docs.stsci.edu/jwst-near-infrared-imager-and-slitless-spectrograph/niriss-observing-modes/niriss-aperture-masking-interferometry][https://jwst-docs.stsci.edu/jwst-near-infrared-camera/nircam-observing-modes/nircam-coronagraphic-imaging][https://jwst-docs.stsci.edu/jwst-mid-infrared-instrument/miri-observing-modes/miri-coronagraphic-imaging] and to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNJR3lenz1I&t=293s convert very distant objects to their original color] from {{w|redshift}}ed infrared when possible. The capabilities of the JWST are likely to soon answer many difficult astronomical, astrophysical, and [[2643: Cosmologist Gift|cosmological]] questions that had been previously undecidable, including important questions about the {{w|biosignature}}s of {{w|exoplanet}}s.

The title text references {{w|Lagrange Point|Lagrange Point 2}} (L<sub>2</sub>). The Lagrange Points are five locations corresponding to stationary regions of the {{w|restricted three-body problem}}, in which one of the bodies is much less massive than the other two. A low-mass body in one of those five locations will remain roughly stationary relative to the other two bodies with very little fuel needed for trajectory corrections. In this case, the JWST orbits around the L<sub>2</sub> point of the Earth-Sun system with a period of about 6 months, [https://space.stackexchange.com/a/57378 rather than being stationed exactly at it,] to avoid shadows from the Earth and Moon that would cause harmful temperature and power variations.[https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20190028885] Thus it avoids the problem with the {{w|Hubble Space Telescope}} caused by orbiting the Earth, allowing only a short observation window per orbit, with only about 55 minutes of each of its 95 minute orbits usable for observations not sufficiently above or below its orbital plane.

==Transcript==
:[Each panel features an image of space, with text printed in white at the top of each panel. The first panel only shows white dots representing stars, but with not much details to any of them. The text:]
:They say the best camera is the one you have with you.

:[The second panel shows more stars and now some galaxies are clearly visible with galaxy shapes. There is also one very bright star in the lower part. The text:]
:It turns out 

:[The third panel is showing even more stars and galaxies with even more details to the galaxzies, especially one large spiral galaxy in the upper right part. At the center of the panel is an outline drawing in white of the James Webb Space Telescope, seen from above the sun-shield so the telescopes hexagonal mirror segments and the arm in front of it is clearly visible. Also the shields layers are drawn. The text.]
:They're wrong.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:Photography]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Telescopes]]
[[Category:Space probes]]