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Painting a satellite black wouldn't solve the problem that they would still block the stars behind them when passing overhead. Instead of light streaks, you now
by umeshunni 2y ago
Painting a satellite black wouldn't solve the problem that they would still block the stars behind them when passing overhead. Instead of light streaks, you now have dark streaks across a region of the sky.
- wing-_-nuts 2y agoI mean that's like saying that a star's brightness isn't a problem when searching for exo planets, and they only block you from seeing the objects behind them. Obviously that's not true. Light pollution from orbital satellites is a real thing.
- mort96 2y agoThese "dark streaks" would be way less of an issue. The reason you get light streaks is that exposure is really long and the satellites move quickly. The fraction of time a satellite is covering any given portion of the picture is really small. If you use, say, a 30 minute exposure, these "dark streaks" will be parts of the picture which only got, say, 29 minutes and 55 seconds. That's not a big deal. The problem with painted satellites is instead that they're not black enough; they still produce light streaks since they're still somewhat reflective. I don't know if it's possible to make them non-reflective enough to make this a non-issue.