TESS Observations

TESS observes the sky in sectors measuring 24° x 96° that extend from near the ecliptic to beyond the ecliptic pole. Each sector is observed for two orbits of the satellite around the Earth, or about 27 days.

• Current Pointing
• Schedule of Observations

TESS is observing sectors in the southern ecliptic hemisphere during the first year of the mission and will observe sectors in the northern ecliptic hemisphere in the second year of the mission.  The locations of the sectors for the first year of the mission are shown in the figure: click on a sector to be directed to a page with more details about the sector (as they become available).

The timing of TESS observations and ground contacts can be found in the TESS Operations Calendar.

Where is TESS pointed now?

TESS has begun observing Sector 18 and is in Orbit 43.  The pointing direction of the instrument during Sector 18 is:

Ecliptic Longitude (J2000): 52°
Ecliptic Latitude (J2000): +54°

RA (J2000): 16°
Dec (J2000): +68°
Roll (deg): 41°

Hover and click to go to each sector.
Map in ecliptic coordinates of the observing sectors for the first year of the TESS mission. Camera 1 is outlined in red, camera 2 in magenta, camera 3 in blue, and camera 4 in green.  The thin black line is the ecliptic, the thick black line is the galactic plane.

Year 2 Observations

TESS will observe the northern ecliptic hemisphere during the second year of its primary mission. The cameras will be oriented along a line of ecliptic longitude (as they were in Year 1), with that longitude determined by the anti-solar longitude at the mid-point of the sector. For most of Year 2, the camera array will be oriented such that Camera 4 is centered on the northern ecliptic pole: in this orientation, the southernmost edge of Camera 1 is ~6° from the ecliptic.

For Sectors 14-16, scattered light from the Earth and Moon was predicted to be a significant problem in Cameras 1 and 2, reducing the available observing time for exoplanet transits by as much as 75% in those cameras. To reduce the impact of scattered light, the field-of-view of the camera array was shifted north by 31° with respect to its nominal pointing in Sectors 14, 15, and 16.

When the cameras are shifted north, the northern ecliptic pole will be located 7° from the center of camera 3, and the southernmost edge of Camera 1 will be at an ecliptic latitude of ~37°.  In addition, with this shift, the fields-of-view of Cameras 3 and 4 observed “on the other side of the pole”, thereby providing additional observations of parts of the sky that would otherwise only be observed in Sectors 20-22.

Scattered light from the Earth and Moon is also expected to be a problem in Sectors 25 and 26 and, to a lesser extent, in Sector 24.  The camera array will likely be shifted north in Sectors 25 and 26. The scattered light performance in Sectors 14, 15, and 16 will be reviewed before deciding the instrument pointing for Sector 24.

The sky coverage maps for Sectors 1-21 are given below in the ecliptic and celestial coordinate systems.

Observations To Date

Through Sector 17.