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It doesnt matter the impact of amateur astrophotography's work, starlink doesn't have the right to take that from them. I do think we need to evaluate whether t

It doesnt matter the impact of amateur astrophotography's work, starlink doesn't have the right to take that from them. I do think we need to evaluate whether these costs are worth it. I go further. I myself think we need to take a second look at city light. I'd like us to begin working on making the milky way visible again.

animal_spirits 6y ago
I agree. Vast populations of people can't know their place in the universe because they physically can not see it. What can we do to avoid that? In suburbs it seams feasible to stop building / start removing streetlamps in neighborhoods that don't necessarily need them, but I don't know how that would work in bigger cities
- kergonath 6y ago
  Better, more directional street lamps help, even in large cities. We can tune their wavelength to be less blinding as well. They do not need to illuminate the sky. More of them, and less powerful, would provide better light where it’s actually needed. The other side is to reduce emissions of aerosols and particles that scatter light in the atmosphere.
TeMPOraL 6y ago
> starlink doesn't have the right to take that from them. I do think we need to evaluate whether these costs are worth it. Yes, but when doing that, let's also take into account the fact that Starlink exists to open up space access. Starlink doesn't exist (just) to provide Internet access, it exists primarily to fund Starship and further reduce costs of space missions. This makes it one of the most important thing happening for astronomy.
- ganafagol 6y ago
  Yeah, so it basically exists to bring FB and Google to more people on the planet easier. We're selling out our skies to the ad industry. For free! What a great idea. Textbook example for tragedy of the commons. Luckily we didn't do the same with earthly resources like water, air, wild animals, ... oh wait

animal_spirits 6y ago

I agree. Vast populations of people can't know their place in the universe because they physically can not see it. What can we do to avoid that? In suburbs it seams feasible to stop building / start removing streetlamps in neighborhoods that don't necessarily need them, but I don't know how that would work in bigger cities

kergonath 6y ago
Better, more directional street lamps help, even in large cities. We can tune their wavelength to be less blinding as well. They do not need to illuminate the sky. More of them, and less powerful, would provide better light where it’s actually needed. The other side is to reduce emissions of aerosols and particles that scatter light in the atmosphere.

TeMPOraL 6y ago

> starlink doesn't have the right to take that from them. I do think we need to evaluate whether these costs are worth it. Yes, but when doing that, let's also take into account the fact that Starlink exists to open up space access. Starlink doesn't exist (just) to provide Internet access, it exists primarily to fund Starship and further reduce costs of space missions. This makes it one of the most important thing happening for astronomy.

ganafagol 6y ago
Yeah, so it basically exists to bring FB and Google to more people on the planet easier. We're selling out our skies to the ad industry. For free! What a great idea. Textbook example for tragedy of the commons. Luckily we didn't do the same with earthly resources like water, air, wild animals, ... oh wait