More Light Pollution

You do realize the starlink satellites have a lifespan of 3-5 years, right?

The plan might be to launch “a gazillion starlink satellites”, but the long term plan is nothing more than maintenance to the existing constellation. They fall out of the sky quite often.

Reflect Orbital is a pipe dream, more of a joke really.

The valid concern I see is not in Starlink, but all the OTHER LEO Internet services launching, such as Kuiper, Qianfan, Guowang, and more. Together, they will certainly saturate the sky further, certainly feeding the Kessler Syndrome. Musk takes the heat for everything, but he’s only a small part of this puzzle.

As an astrophotographer however, none of these bother me all that much. No amount of LEO’s screaming through my frame will ever be as bad as trying to image near the geostationary belt. I do not see the concern over light pollution yet as even the brightest satellites like ISS are still dimmer than a plane flying over. Also, these satellites are only going to appear in your frame during dusk time frame, where they can reflect the sun. Once you’re in astrodark, you don’t see the LEO’s anymore. And to be quite honest, as a visual observer, I find it kinda neat when they pass through my eye piece.

John Hayes · Jul 3, 2026, 04:05 PM

Tony Gondola · Jul 2, 2026 at 08:26 PM

Totally non-related but why are so many science writers using a phase like " thousands of satellites in Earth’s orbit” as opposed to Earth orbit? Even everyone’s standard of knowledge, ChatGPT, knows the difference.

A lot of science writers are not very precise about such things and science education has reached a point where they are rarely called out over it. This stuff happens all the time. The airline industry has invented a whole new version English to suit themselves. Why do we “de-plane” instead of “exit”? I’m particularly troubled when they announce that we’ll be “landing momentarily”. Are we really going to do a touch-and-go rather than land in a moment? It’s just the way the world works so we just have to let it go…

John

LOL, I suppose so…

Brian Puhl · Jul 3, 2026, 03:44 AM

You do realize the starlink satellites have a lifespan of 3-5 years, right?

The plan might be to launch “a gazillion starlink satellites”, but the long term plan is nothing more than maintenance to the existing constellation. They fall out of the sky quite often.

Reflect Orbital is a pipe dream, more of a joke really.

The valid concern I see is not in Starlink, but all the OTHER LEO Internet services launching, such as Kuiper, Qianfan, Guowang, and more. Together, they will certainly saturate the sky further, certainly feeding the Kessler Syndrome. Musk takes the heat for everything, but he’s only a small part of this puzzle.

As an astrophotographer however, none of these bother me all that much. No amount of LEO’s screaming through my frame will ever be as bad as trying to image near the geostationary belt. I do not see the concern over light pollution yet as even the brightest satellites like ISS are still dimmer than a plane flying over. Also, these satellites are only going to appear in your frame during dusk time frame, where they can reflect the sun. Once you’re in astrodark, you don’t see the LEO’s anymore. And to be quite honest, as a visual observer, I find it kinda neat when they pass through my eye piece.

No, I didn’t know that. I’m glad to hear it. I do notice with my imaging that some parts of the sky seem to have far more satellites than others. I’m imaging now LDN 900 and there are very few satellite streaks going through the subs. I’d like to keep it that way of course.

Nevertheless, the sky should be considered a universal public resource, a natural wonder that everyone in the world has a right to enjoy. Private companies that want to put their equipment and devices up there should be regulated by an international body that that weighs what’s in the public good. A dark sky, away from city lights should have some protection. When is enough enough? When is too much too much?