Satellite proliferation

[Howard Lawrence]

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?

[Dr Paul Leyland]

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.

[Robin Leadbeater]

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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