APOD: Satellites Behind Pinnacles (2022 Jun 14)

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APOD: Satellites Behind Pinnacles (2022 Jun 14)

Post by APOD Robot » Tue Jun 14, 2022 4:05 am

Image Satellites Behind Pinnacles

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.

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Re: APOD: Satellites Behind Pinnacles (2022 Jun 14)

Post by daddyo » Tue Jun 14, 2022 6:35 am

“You can tell your children of the day everyone looked up, and realized that we are only tenants of this world”

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Re: APOD: Satellites Behind Pinnacles (2022 Jun 14)

Post by JohnD » Tue Jun 14, 2022 12:54 pm

Satellites? In a regular grid pattern?

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Re: APOD: Satellites Behind Pinnacles (2022 Jun 14)

Post by orin stepanek » Tue Jun 14, 2022 1:04 pm

StarTrailsPinnacles_Rozells_960_annotated.jpg
Do we really need all this? Oh so many satellites! :roll:
https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2019/09/0 ... 3_1280.jpg
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Re: APOD: Satellites Behind Pinnacles (2022 Jun 14)

Post by Chris Peterson » Tue Jun 14, 2022 1:25 pm

orin stepanek wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 1:04 pm StarTrailsPinnacles_Rozells_960_annotated.jpg
Do we really need all this? Oh so many satellites! :roll:
https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2019/09/0 ... 3_1280.jpg
Kitty is wise!
We do need that many. And many more. Visually, you would miss most of these. Photographically, it's quite difficult to take a picture like this. I've done it, and it's a lot more work than taking one with no satellites. For deep sky imaging, satellites are almost never an issue. Their main problem is with a handful of survey projects, where they are bright enough to cause blooming on CCD images, which can ruin most of a frame. There are technical fixes to that which we can expect to see. So for a minor inconvenience to ground-based astronomy, we get rich Earth observation and universal communications.
Chris

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Re: APOD: Satellites Behind Pinnacles (2022 Jun 14)

Post by JohnD » Tue Jun 14, 2022 5:04 pm

From our resident astronomer, "a minor inconvenience to ground-based astronomy".

While the IAU sets up the Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference, in response to so much concern in the discipline. https://www.iau.org/science/scientific_ ... ight%20sky.

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Re: APOD: Satellites Behind Pinnacles (2022 Jun 14)

Post by MarkBour » Tue Jun 14, 2022 5:10 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 1:25 pm
orin stepanek wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 1:04 pm StarTrailsPinnacles_Rozells_960_annotated.jpg
Do we really need all this? Oh so many satellites! :roll:
https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2019/09/0 ... 3_1280.jpg
Kitty is wise!
We do need that many. And many more.
I would disagree. I feel like we already have enough communication.

But more importantly, what I think we need to have is the debate as to whether or not we need this.

Instead, we now live in a world where a single person can manage to become a billionaire, and then can use their wealth to act like the entire low earth orbit region is theirs to do with as they please. This is just one of the many things that can be done with great wealth.

I'm not sure I understood
daddyo wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 6:35 am “You can tell your children of the day everyone looked up, and realized that we are only tenants of this world”
but I think that was part of what he was also expressing (?)
Mark Goldfain

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Re: APOD: Satellites Behind Pinnacles (2022 Jun 14)

Post by Chris Peterson » Tue Jun 14, 2022 5:29 pm

MarkBour wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 5:10 pm
Chris Peterson wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 1:25 pm
orin stepanek wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 1:04 pm StarTrailsPinnacles_Rozells_960_annotated.jpg
Do we really need all this? Oh so many satellites! :roll:
https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2019/09/0 ... 3_1280.jpg
Kitty is wise!
We do need that many. And many more.
I would disagree. I feel like we already have enough communication.

But more importantly, what I think we need to have is the debate as to whether or not we need this.

Instead, we now live in a world where a single person can manage to become a billionaire, and then can use their wealth to act like the entire low earth orbit region is theirs to do with as they please. This is just one of the many things that can be done with great wealth.
Space is the only viable option for a worldwide communications network. There's room up there for plenty of competition. IMO the benefits vastly outweigh the harms.
Chris

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Re: APOD: Satellites Behind Pinnacles (2022 Jun 14)

Post by MarkBour » Tue Jun 14, 2022 9:29 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 5:29 pm
MarkBour wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 5:10 pm
Chris Peterson wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 1:25 pm

We do need that many. And many more.
I would disagree. I feel like we already have enough communication.

But more importantly, what I think we need to have is the debate as to whether or not we need this.

Instead, we now live in a world where a single person can manage to become a billionaire, and then can use their wealth to act like the entire low earth orbit region is theirs to do with as they please. This is just one of the many things that can be done with great wealth.
Space is the only viable option for a worldwide communications network. There's room up there for plenty of competition. IMO the benefits vastly outweigh the harms.
Well, I think the biggest issues with the way the U.S. and its tycoons are proceeding are (international) political issues, so ... I just realized I should stop right here -- else I'd violate the forum rules.
Mark Goldfain

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Re: APOD: Satellites Behind Pinnacles (2022 Jun 14)

Post by Chris Peterson » Tue Jun 14, 2022 9:38 pm

MarkBour wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 9:29 pm
Chris Peterson wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 5:29 pm
MarkBour wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 5:10 pm

I would disagree. I feel like we already have enough communication.

But more importantly, what I think we need to have is the debate as to whether or not we need this.

Instead, we now live in a world where a single person can manage to become a billionaire, and then can use their wealth to act like the entire low earth orbit region is theirs to do with as they please. This is just one of the many things that can be done with great wealth.
Space is the only viable option for a worldwide communications network. There's room up there for plenty of competition. IMO the benefits vastly outweigh the harms.
Well, I think the biggest issues with the way the U.S. and its tycoons are proceeding are (international) political issues, so ... I just realized I should stop right here -- else I'd violate the forum rules.
What the companies are doing, of course, could be reasonably separated from what individuals are doing. Could be...

(I've got Starlink service, and it's brilliant. For the first time in my life, I have actual broadband Internet. Nobody else was going to provide it. My government was apparently not going to create laws that made it available. So the market did.)
Chris

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Re: APOD: Satellites Behind Pinnacles (2022 Jun 14)

Post by MarkBour » Tue Jun 14, 2022 9:42 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 9:38 pm
MarkBour wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 9:29 pm
Chris Peterson wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 5:29 pm
Space is the only viable option for a worldwide communications network. There's room up there for plenty of competition. IMO the benefits vastly outweigh the harms.
Well, I think the biggest issues with the way the U.S. and its tycoons are proceeding are (international) political issues, so ... I just realized I should stop right here -- else I'd violate the forum rules.
What the companies are doing, of course, could be reasonably separated from what individuals are doing. Could be...
Oh, and I just read that the Starlink project sought an approval from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Even though that began years ago, I was not aware of it. That is encouraging to hear about. I have no idea of the state of that process at this time.
Mark Goldfain

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Re: APOD: Satellites Behind Pinnacles (2022 Jun 14)

Post by daddyo » Tue Jun 14, 2022 11:14 pm

MarkBour wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 5:10 pm I'm not sure I understood
daddyo wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 6:35 am “You can tell your children of the day everyone looked up, and realized that we are only tenants of this world”
but I think that was part of what he was also expressing (?)
Something that popped into my head from the end of Clarke’s 2010

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Re: APOD: Satellites Behind Pinnacles (2022 Jun 14)

Post by pferkul » Tue Jun 21, 2022 9:00 pm

JohnD wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 12:54 pm Satellites? In a regular grid pattern?
Yes, what is reason for the "graph-paper" effect?
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