Update on pointing for Sector 16

News article posted on by Knicole Colon

TESS has been successfully conducting observations in the northern ecliptic hemisphere since July 18th. As previously announced, the field-of-view of the TESS camera array was shifted north by 31° with respect to its nominal pointing in Sectors 14 and 15 in order to reduce the impact of scattered light from the Earth and Moon. After examining Sector 14 data, it has been decided that the pointing for Sector 16 will also be shifted.

Additional details on the pointing change can be found at the MIT TESS website and correspondingly on the Technical Details page of our website. The Web TESS Viewing Tool (WTV) that is hosted on our website has been updated to reflect the change in pointing for Sectors 14, 15, and 16.

The sky coverage maps for Sectors 1-21 are given below in the ecliptic and celestial coordinate systems, with Sectors 14, 15, and 16 shifted north.