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I have been posting items about satellites under the dark skies news
forum. But in many ways the problems of satellite proliferation (and other potentially harmful developments in space) are not the same. While both issues have impacts on amateur astronomy they need different approaches. For instance, satellite proliferation is an international issue and campaigns against it are best coordinated internationally.
So, I am setting up this thread in the hope of finding out what BAA members think about what is happening outside Earth’s atmosphere. Do enough of us see the need for a new BAA campaign?Yes and no, IMO.
At the moment, and conditions may change, the “pretty picture” brigade have a readily simple mechanism to cope. They either discard subs impacted by satellites or they use (for example) sigma-rejection to discard the affected areas of their subs.
The spectroscopists and (especially) photometrists are a little more constrained. If the satellite goes over (or too close to) the target all they can do is throw away that data. For photometrists,if the satellite goes over (or too close to) a comparison it is necessary to remove that one from the ensemble for that sub. A real PITA, admittedly, but hardly crippling if there are a good number of other comparisons in the ensemble. The major problem, IMO, is teaching the pipeline to reject those occurrences without human assistance.
Caught a ridiculously bright satellite glint in the all sky camera last night, straddling two 10 sec exposures. (At first I thought is was a meteor but the faint track can be followed across the sky in the stretched images)
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Here are some recent items of interest to give flavour of satellite proliferation issues. These are mostly about space junk https://www.space.com/space-junk-new-deadly-era-no-one-is-ready
https://pirg.org/edfund/resources/wastex-environmental-harms-of-satellite-internet-mega-constellations/For more on the Kessler Syndrome see:
https://www.kesslerrebellion.comHi Robin.. Way down south of you M40 Jn3.. Your quaint Image and description excited my Interest.. Luckily I think that I eventually discovered a ‘typo’ in the wordage of your Image.. relative to the Date and wordage of your Input.. Then with my Arthy fingers becoming tired.. i was delighted to see.. at my less than regularly accurate time setting.. a Beautiful Bright Fireball with a Staggered Start.. Serendipity Indeed.. I will certainly do the necessary to extract a copy.. and Post here.. I do so miss that wonderful Archive of UKMON.. which regularly had me finding Bright Meteors inthe area of Sky above my valley..which I now cover with Old Unwanted Security cameras..[Shades of Mike Maunder].. Just refound an Image of my first Winchester Meeting and a pre Fame Heather..
Hi Stan,
The flare and time stamp on the image file name should be correct within a few seconds (2024-08-12 23:27:40 UTC) What time was your fireball ?
The camera takes 10 sec exposures per frame for fainter objects in the deeper sky rather than video for meteors but I am pretty sure what I saw was a satellite, not a fireball.
In the stretched images I can see the faint track for about 50 seconds before the flare, the flare lasted about 20 seconds and the track then continued as before the flare for at least another 10 seconds.
The animation is too big to post here but I have uploaded it to my website here.
http://threehillsobservatory.co.uk/allsky_camera/sat_flare_202408012T23_27_40_stretched.gif
The animation is 20x true speed. Each frame is a 10 second exposure, the yellow arrow marks the track in each image.Did any of the myriad of NEMATODE/GMN cameras in the south of the country pick up your fireball perhaps?
Cheers
RobinI have many concerns about the unconstrained used of near space for commercial and geopolitical advantage. From an amateur astronomer view, as Paul Leyland says, a few photometric observations could be spoiled but stacked images can still be edited. Using a smartscope recently to observe in real time I noticed that a satellite track quickly dimmed and was almost invisible in the final image.
But if the predictions of a general increase in global sky glow prove correct (see first link below), will it not reduce the contrast achievable by all instruments everywhere? One implication of this is that dark sky reserves could become a bit irrelevant.
When adding up the other potential threats (such as increasing radio noise, human rights impacts on diverse cultures, the risks of a Kessler syndrome event, the potential for military /commercial instability…), I think this is a topic that everyone should be aware of and have a democratic say about.
Are there (enough) BAA members willing to come forward and start a campaign?
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