A Powerful New Telescope is About to be Screwed by Elon Musk's Starlink Constellation, Research Sugg

[Judi Lynn]

By George Dvorsky on 14 Mar 2020 at 7:00AM

As astronomers eagerly await the opening of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, anxious operators have run tests to see how well the system might work when low Earth orbit is cluttered with satellite megaconstellations, similar to the one being built by SpaceX. Unsurprisingly, the results were not good.

New research from the Rubin Observatory Project Science Team (PST) shows that a megaconstellation consisting of 42,000 satellites will wreak havoc on the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), which is slated to begin late next year and end in 2032.

Nearly one in three LSST images are expected to contain at least one satellite trail, while practically all images taken at dusk or dawn will be marred by at least one satellite trail, according to the research. If nothing is done to mitigate this pending problem, the team expects it will have to add an additional four years of work to the project.

Named in honour of Vera C. Rubin, a pioneer in dark matter research, the observatory should come online late next year. Astronomers will use the Rubin Observatory’s 8.4-metre (27.5-foot) Simonyi Survey Telescope and the 3,200 megapixel LSST Camera to capture 1,000 images each night, surveying nearby stars and galaxies far, far away. The Rubin Observatory, in addition to helping with astronomy and cosmology, could conceivably detect dangerous asteroids approaching Earth.

More:
https://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2020/03/a-powerful-new-telescope-is-about-to-be-screwed-by-elon-musks-starlink-constellation-research-suggests/

Also posted in Science:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/122868482

[2naSalit]

1. I knew they'd be a problem.

I saw most of the first batch go by, not knowing what it was and it kind of freaked me out a little, back in November. I saw the second batch, traveling in a perpendicular direction to the first set, a bout a week ago, two days in a row.

That's a little too common for me. It's a new kind of light pollution with space junk.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Sad, isn't it? What the giant telescopes can discover is more important, by all means.

I can't imagine seeing those things passing overhead. It would be such a strange experience the first time. Hearing you saw them again, so soon after sounds as if there most surely is a problem already.

[2naSalit]

4. It is troubling. We don't have light pollution per se...

miles away from any cities and street lights, you can see what seems like everything. It's daunting with the naked eye, and sometimes, when I need a humbling experience, I take my strong binos out and look at the night sky... sends chills up the spine realizing how small and insignificant we are in the universe.

Seeing those things kind of pissed me off when I found out what they were.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Fascinating photos of the new observatory and Vera Rubin on this page in google images:

https://tinyurl.com/s59224c

[Zorro]

5. Astronomical observations at the terminator are generally not optimal

I also think it would not be that difficult to remove satellite streaks during long observations; those transients are easily observable in nights skies away from urban areas.