Photometry, astrometry and imaging.

Forums General Discussion Another impact (literally) of Space-X Starlink Photometry, astrometry and imaging.

#581775
Dr Paul Leyland
Participant

VS observers such as myself are relatively fortunate.  We already have to deal with satellite trails and cosmic ray hits but, as long as they don’t lie within the apertures around the VS and comparison stars, they don’t matter.

Those interested in precision astrometry — of asteroids and comets, for example — are in a similar position.

It’s the takers of pretty pictures who will have the real difficulties.

Perhaps more people will become interested in the measurement of images rather than in imaging per se.  I’d argue that the former is more scientifically valuable but I’m a scientist and so can be expected to be biased.