I'm curious because I read that the James Webb telescope is orbiting and I was wondering if you could see it with a good telescope from here. I have a Celestron 8 at home and I'd like to know if it's possible to see it or if it's too far away.
The James Webb is about 1.5 million kilometers away from here, which makes it impossible to see even with a decent telescope like your Celestron 8. To give you an idea, it's like trying to spot a satellite from Earth, but a thousand times farther away and much smaller. The only way to "see" it is through the images that NASA transmits, which thankfully are spectacular.
The tricky part here isn't just the distance - even though 1.5 million km is a lot - but that the telescope would need to be able to resolve the object into pixels, so to speak. Your Celestron 8 has limited resolving power and the Webb is relatively small in the sky from here. People sometimes think a more powerful telescope solves everything, but there's a physical limit: no matter how much you magnify, if the object appears too tiny, you're just not going to see it as something distinguishable 🔭 The best way to "see" it is through live images that NASA publishes or tracking its position with space-tracking apps.
Your Celestron 8 simply won't be able to resolve something so tiny at that distance, no matter how much you magnify the image! The others answer well about the distance, but what really kills the possibility is that the Webb is a thin structure with no light of its own, orbiting at the Lagrange point L2 - basically it's like trying to see a needle from kilometers away even if you had the best binoculars in the world. The only way to "see" it is to track it in real time through satellite tracking websites that use radar data and orbital calculations, not direct visual observation.
Here's the thing: although technically the James Webb reflects sunlight and sends it toward Earth, the object is so tiny at that distance that no amateur telescope - nor even a mid-sized professional one - can capture enough photons to detect it visually. Your Celestron 8 has a resolving power of around 0.6 arcseconds, but the JWST at 1.5 million km occupies a ridiculously small visual angle, way smaller than that. It's like pointing at a coin 500 km away.
People tend to confuse "magnifying power" with "resolving power." Magnifying 200 times something you can't see is still invisible. What kills the possibility here is the angular size, not the distance in round numbers. That said, if what appeals to you is tracking satellites in orbit, there's a hack that works: some professional observatories do manage to detect the reflection of the Webb's solar array using large telescopes and specific imaging techniques. If you're really interested in seeing it somehow, check if there are university observatories in your area that organize public sessions; some have equipment capable of capturing the reflected light, even if it's just a faint dot in long-exposure photos, not live viewing.
Basically no, and the folks above already explained it well: the distance combined with the Webb's tiny size put it way beyond the reach of any amateur telescope. But if what gets you going is seeing something in space that most people don't get to see, try tracking bright satellites like Iridium or the International Space Station with your Celestron - they're visible to the naked eye or with magnification and give you that "whoa, that's cool" feeling that makes it worth having a telescope at home.
With a Celestron 8 you're not going to see it, that's clear from the distance and the tiny size of the object, but there's a detail nobody mentions: even if you could theoretically resolve it, the James Webb doesn't emit its own light - it just reflects the sun's light very weakly, so it would be ridiculously dim even if it were large enough 🔭 It's basically a mirror lost in space at 1.5 million km, reflecting barely any photons in your direction.
You can't see it with a Celestron 8, but the full reason is way more interesting than just distance. The James Webb is such a tiny object - we're talking about a mirror about 6 meters in diameter viewed from 1.5 million km away - that the angular size it would subtend in the sky is literally smaller than the resolution capability of any amateur telescope. Even professional space telescopes would need to be pointing practically in the exact direction, and the Webb doesn't reflect visible light in any useful way from that perspective.
What people sometimes don't realize is that the problem doesn't get solved by magnifying more. Your Celestron 8 has resolution power limited by its aperture diameter - no matter how much magnification you use, you won't be able to separate details smaller than what physics allows. It's like when you zoom in too much on a digital photo and just see blurry pixels. With 200 millimeters of aperture you're working with one of the best telescopes for amateurs, but the Webb is simply out of visual range.
If you really want to stay connected with the telescope, the best thing is to follow the images it publishes regularly. It's more satisfying than nothing and besides you actually see what the Webb is really detecting in infrared, which is what's truly fascinating.
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