See how SpaceX Starlink is going to ruin our hobby :(

Bernhard Suntinger:
Do you know if the SpaceX Starlink satellites are also detectable by the ccd-sensor when they are not reflecting the sunlight down to earth?

The image of Mr Rodolphe is the answer to your question

Clear skies

My Astro chums are confident that stacking software will be able to process these out, I hope they are right, otherwise we will all be sitting on a lot of useless expensive equipment.

Carole

Well, it is true that a good rejection algorithm (like the mentioned 'kappa sigma' ) will erase trails. But keep in mind that SpaceX will launch about 12.000 satellites in its first stage and another 30.000 in the next one if they will not be stopped (at the moment there are about 450 in orbit). That means that nearly any single sub will contain these trails and i doubt that any algorithm (even the often used winsorized clipping in PI) is capable of rejecting these many trails.

Here is a short blog that I posted a little while back that shows the success (thus far) of eliminating Starlink trails.

http://skyandrockets.blogspot.com/2021/01/dealing-with-starlink-satellites.html

I'm not happy about Starlink and I have a lot of concern about what sky will look like with tens of thousands of satellites criss-crossing every possible field of view.  However, I'm pretty sure that stacking filters will take care of removing the trails.   It may simply require a bit more data to get a clean stack, but that will depend on how many satellites cross the field while the shutter is open.

I've seen very few folks mention the fact that Starlink might go a long way toward solving one of the key problems with remote astro-imaging.  Putting an observatory out in the middle of a really dark, high quality site is often limited by the availability of an internet connection and the bandwidth available.  With Starlink, it should be possible to set up solar powered imaging sites in the most remote regions of the planet without any other means of data link.  Unfortunately, the way that Starlink solves that problem is a bit like the workings of a front illuminated CMOS array that has the detector looking out past all the interconnect circuitry in front of it!  Micro-lens arrays go a long way toward solving the CMOS problem and stacking filters should do the same for Starlink.

John

Elon Musk talked about it on JRE in the episode today, said that it doesn't really affect astronomy, at least not the "professional" astronomers. The worst part about this is that before you know it everyone and their mother will have a satellite orbiting the earth including the big corporations.

I have only been in this hobby for less than 12 months now but I am smitten and can't get enough, so I feel a little sad that Starlink can have such a dramatic effect on our hobby BUT I think it is very easy to lose sight of the fact that us in the west are very very privileged, just being able to afford astro gear says a lot about where we are compared to the rest of the world - the vast majority of people on this planet can barely afford to live to what we call a good standard.
Starlink will help lift many people out of poverty. Education is key, key to that in the 3rd world is access to information and cheap internet will greatly aid that, so while I have Starlink satellites flying through my subs I do remember what it will give for many many millions of people.
I think Elon has already put some thought into how he can minimise the future impact of his satellites after the first responses he got when they were launched, lets make sure we can strong arm him into sticking to those thoughts.
CS skies or "Starlink free skies"
Brad

I am not trying to turn this into an argument, but I think many are concerned about StarLink because it is the first of many constellations. I think we could debate about the individual impact of a single 15,000+ constellation, and whether said company is trying to work with the researchers to avoid impact. That does not mean that Bezo's will, or OneWeb, etc.

Space is a resource for the entire planet, yet the decisions to allow constellations are being done at a national level. A future with hundreds of thousands of satellites would not only be bad for astronomy, it would be bad for space travel, space debris, collisions, etc. And once we go down this path it is hard to reverse it.

I dont think anyone is debating about whether "cheap" internet is a game changer, it is. But its fair to ask about how to accomplish that and have the international community give it some thought.

Byron Miller:
I think starlink will be great for the world and won't impact amateur astronomers one bit.

Working for that company? Your post is nonsense - it IS already having an impact on both, amateurs and professional astronomers!

I've had "Starlinked" subs but I'll take those any day over geostationary sats that move enough to ruin the picture but not enough to get em all with most rejection algos.

Technology gives and takes. Not only does stacking with the right rejection settings take care of this, shorter subs enabled by low read noise CMOS also drastically lowers its impact, and further improvements in that technology are on the horizon.

I'll gladly sign up for Starlink if that means finally busting open the near-monopolies of ISPs and (especially) cable companies.

Finally, artificial light and the spread of urbanisation is still by far the greater threat to our hobby for many of us, and so far even that has been a losing battle from where I'm standing.