5 ms·
Will this be the last generation to remember the night sky?
by senderista 3mo ago
Will this be the last generation to remember the night sky?
- spongebobstoes 3mo agolight pollution already means the night sky is largely invisible outside of remote areas
- ofjcihen 3mo ago“You can’t see it most places so who cares if it goes away” is my most charitable interpretation of this.
- morkalork 3mo agoI've never seen a glacier before, have you?
- browski 3mo agoYeah. Hiked on and around them in PNW mountains. And?
- defrost 3mo agoGood for you getting that in before they disappear, probably got to see the night sky also, you can tell your grandchildren about that. * https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-mountain-glaciers https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/...
- browski 3mo ago[flagged]
- Bolwin 3mo agoGlaciers have never been accessible to most people. The night sky has, until recently.
- morkalork 3mo agoAre you sure? Most people live in urban centers the last few generations and see few if any stars in the night sky
- PeterHolzwarth 3mo agoThe majority of people live in cities - and a growing majority.
- spongebobstoes 3mo agomy comment is pushback against claiming "this generation" as uniquely doomed, and doomerism in general
- switchbak 3mo ago“Remote areas” make up most of the world.
- highfrequency 3mo agoWeighting by population seems reasonable here!
- switchbak 3mo agoI think when it comes to watching the night sky, weighing to populated areas isn't necessarily right. It's not like you should value rural folks' view of the night sky less. Paraphrasing (strawmanning?) the original - it doesn't matter if StarLink has ruined the night sky if city dwellers can't see the it. Well, I believe it still matters a lot. And we're still talking about nearly 1/2 the world population here.
- tocs3 3mo agoI have seen both stars and satellites from suburbs and some urban areas. They are not very remote. There is a lot to see if you look. I do not like the light pollution but as it stands it is not the end of star gazing.
- vjvjvjvjghv 3mo agoIf you don't take long exposures, the satellites won't cause you much trouble seeing the stars. Regular light pollution is the problem.
- defrost 3mo agoSucks for regular astronomy then, where long exposures are the norm. Equally sucks for radio astronomy where the bloody things leak into spectrums they (Starlink) pinky promised to keep clean. And successive generations have worsened the problem, again despite promises to improve.
- kortilla 3mo agoIf you have evidence of them causing interference on a spectrum they shouldn’t be on, report it to the FCC. They take that very seriously
- tqi 3mo agoBrendan Carr seems more interested in settling political scores
- vjvjvjvjghv 3mo agoThat's his job description
- ericjmorey 3mo agoI'm not confident after all government investigations and lawsuits against Elon and his companies were dropped when Elon illegally accessed government systems, illegally took government data, illegally terminated government employees, and illegally eliminated government departments and programs while creating billions in expenses while pretending his intention was to help anyone but himself. But sure, the FCC might take it seriously.
- arijun 3mo ago
- BurningFrog 3mo agoSatellites only reflect sunlight when in sunlight. This only happens near sunrise and sunset. The night sky will be unaffected by satellites for the foreseeable future.
- defrost 3mo agoYou forgot about the radio spectrum pollution which affects the night and day sky right now .. and for the foreseeable future given the lack of progress in addressing that leakage.
- BurningFrog 3mo agoThe topic is seeing the night sky.
- engineer_22 3mo agoParent might be talking about amateur radio astronomy which I agree might be straying from the main argument
- defrost 3mo agoProfessional radio astronomy - SKA et al. eg: Scientists analyze 76 million radio telescope images, find Starlink satellite interference 'where no signals are supposed to be present' (2025) ~ https://www.space.com/astronomy/scientists-analyze-76-million-radio-telescope-images-find-starlink-satellite-interference-where-no-signals-are-supposed-to-be-present https://www.space.com/astronomy/scientists-analyze-76-millio... and the topic is Starlink (and other sat constellations) and their impact on the sky (visible and non visible).
- BurningFrog 3mo agoThe message I responded to was about visible light: "Will this be the last generation to remember the night sky?"
- 3mo ago
- jws 3mo agoI may have blown the math, but the last time I calculated I figured there were about 35 Starlink satellites above the horizon at my latitude. Looking into the suburban early night sky I see zero, one, or two satellites with about equal probability. I think the hypothesis this leads to is that the "don't shine" techniques Starlink is using are working. I'm guessing the ones I see are either not Starlink or are Starlinks transitioning to their working orbit (they don't do full "dark mode" until they are in place.) If in place units shown I'd see a lot more. So at least, maybe it won't all be gloom and doom. But if it is all gloom, at least it will have little sparkles floating around it.
- colechristensen 3mo ago30 yard wide solar array from 300 miles away. There's a brief period of the day where they're visible but hardly a risk of making a dent in your view of the sky especially compared to ordinary terrestrial light pollution.
- clumsysmurf 3mo agoI'm in a heavily light polluted city (Phoenix) and even with all the air and light pollution, can still see satellites every moment past 2AM to the east. At least this time of year.
- mlindner 3mo agoThat's simply impossible. You must be seeing something else. They aren't that bright.
- clumsysmurf 3mo agoIts very obvious once you know what to look for, they are identical to the simulation at the top of the page below: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_flare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_flare Evenly spaced, every 20-30 seconds. Very, very bright at peak reflectivity, with easing in / out. I have no idea what kind of satellite it is though.
- ecommerceguy 3mo agoAt Farpoint Observatory, this is a major concern for those keeping an eye out for near Earth objects.
- qntmfred 3mo agogo outside right now and look up. it's still there.
- missedthecue 3mo agoIt will be the first generation with widespread space travel. My children will have consumer access to a view that no one had seen until 1961 and only government employees had seen since.
- atomicthumbs 3mo agothis seems slightly delusional
- 0-_-0 3mo agoYou can only see satellites during twilight when they can reflect sunlight. Don't panic.
- atomicthumbs 3mo agoYou have never gone outside somewhere it's actually dark if you think this is the case. They're extremely visible after midnight.
- jillesvangurp 3mo agoMany people have never seen that properly due to light pollution.
- openquery 3mo agoAlso the last generation to not frequent space. See the night sky up close.