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Why can’t they close off the telescope (“LSST”) for the brief moment a bright satellite is in the field of view, during otherwise long and static exposures? Wh
by gorgoiler 7y ago
Why can’t they close off the telescope (“LSST”) for the brief moment a bright satellite is in the field of view, during otherwise long and static exposures?
While the LSST is intended to image the entire sky each night, I don’t think it does so in one exposure. The article says 1000 exposures per night for ~8 hours of “night” is about 30s per exposure, and an LEO satellite might take a minute or two to cross the sky, and this telescope looks at a field of view of 40 moons or about 20° of view.
That’s a big field of view, but if space based solar telescopes are able to use a coronograph — a physical mask to block direct sunlight — in order to image dimmer parts of the sky, couldn’t a telescope like LSST in the article use a similar dynamic masking system?