edit: X (formerly known as Twitter) has changed their API policy, making this bot no longer easily operable for free, so I’ve shut it down.
I like space, and when the James Webb space telescope launched in 2022, I was fascinated with the fact that it was constantly changing observation targets, multiple times per day. Astronomers have a time-sharing system where they submit observation proposals which are then reviewed and approved based on scientific impact
I found the observation schedules online, but they were in a really brutish format — not very readable!
So, I made a Python bot which fetches these schedules, parses them, and then constantly queries for new observation events. Assuming the schedules are kept up-to-date, it will post a tweet in real time when the telescope begins observing a new target
Most of the time when I hear about a new scientific discovery, I learn it was actually completed months or years ago, and only recently published. I like these public observing schedules because each entry has the potential to discover something new about the universe — and we can follow along in real-time!
I am happy to help bring these updates to a broader community — and hopefully it excites more people about the real-time science being done here!