As the James Webb Space Telescope begins the lengthy process of aligning its 18 primary mirror segments, a question burns in the astronomical community: What will the huge observatory look at first.

Webb soared into space successfully on Dec.

The telescope includes 18 hexagonal mirror segments that need to be gradually aligned into a single, nearly perfect light-collecting surface.

A necessary part of that process is taking images of the sky to see how well the alignment is proceeding, but Jane Rigby, Webb operations project scientist, warned everyone not to expect much from the "first light" of Webb.

We'll [have] 18 of these little images all over the sky," Rigby told reporters during a livestreamed press conference on Saturday (Jan. 8) discussing the successful deployment of Webb's 21.3-foot-wide (6.3 meters) primary mirror that day.

Rigby was speaking from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, where telescope operations are centered.

Live updates: NASA's James Webb Space Telescope mission.

The observatory, billed as a successor to the groundbreaking Hubble Space Telescope that launched in 1990, has received many requests for "telescope time" among astronomers, and the vast majority of those had to be turned down.

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