[Starlink] starlink and astronomy
Michael Richardson
mcr at sandelman.ca
Tue Jun 14 08:54:23 EDT 2022
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220614.html
Explanation: What are all those streaks across the background? Satellite
trails. First, the foreground features picturesque rock mounds known as
Pinnacles. Found in the Nambung National Park in Western Australia, these
human-sized spires are made by unknown processes from ancient sea shells
(limestone). Perhaps more eye-catching, though, is the sky behind. Created
by low-Earth orbit satellites reflecting sunlight, all of these streaks
were captured in less than two hours and digitally combined onto the
single featured image, with the foreground taken consecutively by the same
camera and from the same location. Most of the streaks were made by the
developing Starlink constellation of communication satellites, but some
are not. In general, the streaks are indicative of an increasing number of
satellites nearly continuously visible above the Earth after dusk and
before dawn. Understanding and removing the effects of satellite trails on
images from Earth's ground-based cameras and telescopes is now important
not only for elegant astrophotography, but for humanity's scientific
understanding of the distant universe.
Catastrophies in astrophotography aside, I think that the picture may be
useful to people who want to explain how many satellites can be seen in the
sky at the same time.
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