The NIRCam team has developed a new tool designed to help observers identify telescope position angles (PAs) that avoid a type of scattered light artifact in JWST NIRCam images known as “claws”. Claws occur when light from bright stars several degrees outside the field of view enters the instrument through a rogue optical path, contaminating the shortwave detectors (Figure 1). The JWST Rogue Path Tool predicts claw brightness at all possible PAs so users can select PA ranges where claw contamination is minimal or absent in their observations.

More information on this tool is available in JDox, and an example workflow is demonstrated in this Jupyter notebook. Users are encouraged to contact the JWST Help Desk with any questions.