So I've just seen over 30 lights in the sky which I first took to be sattelites moving in a North Easterly direction. Look exactly like sattelites but I've never seen so many at once. Over 30 between 20:00 and 20:15 with up to seven visible simultaneously.

First couple I thougth were sattelites. Then there were just too many and I thought maybe drones. But even with binoc's they were only pin points of light. Thought maybe military or some new type of sattelites I was not previously aware of.

Came inside and googled it. The same phenomenon had been reported on Wednesday by residents of Buckeye, the suburb directly west of me. I'm in Avondale, just on the border with Buckeye.

Turns out it's Space-X's latest little venture. The Starlink program to provide sattelite internet access. I've been watching the skies for years being an amateur astronomer and I can safely say this is the first time I've ever really been taken aback by such a thing where I was really stunned initially.

- Peter.

__________________
2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

I look forward to good satellite internet service, but I don't like the idea of polluting space with a thousand points of artificial light.

Me neither. For some time the amateur astro community has been decrying the increasing numbers of artificial lights in the sky. They're pretty on their own but in time will clash with the beauty of the natural night sky.

- Peter.

__________________
2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

Progress like time, marches on .

There's a name for the light that obscures the stars, I don't remember it but I do remember taking my then 7 Y.O. so to Montana ("Big Sky Country") where he was flabbergasted by the amount of stars and how close they all looked in the crystal clear air .

City dwellers really need to get out and see what they're missing .

Space-X has a facility not far from my Sweet's house, it's where they built that new high speed commuter tunnel .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

Light pollution?


The relative brightness/darkness of observable night sky as it relates to light pollution is quantified using the Bortle scale.

Light pollution, or illumination pollution, light polluted cities all the same.

Thanx guys .

I forget adjectives often these dayze .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

Apparently Musk's plan is to have something like 20 000 of these things up in a few years. I think this is a crazy idea and should simply not be allowed. Though I doubt anybody has the gumption to stop him. I've read concerns about the ability of migratory birds to continue to migrate as they apparently use stars to navigate by. Though not sure if that claim is true as I would assume they don't fly at night. Anybody have any idea about that?

- Peter.

__________________
2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

Try and take your mind back before the english settled in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. Raw land, trees, rivers, streams, mountains and NO concrete highways, no artificial buildings, no airports, no cars and no smog.

Apparently, due to all this COVID-19 mess, there is a lot less smog because the jet aircraft are PARKED and a lot less people are driving anywhere.

Look at the mess we have created.

True. Nothing will ever be pristine. But the reality is what will the situation be with 20 thousand of these things cluttering up the sky. When will the first satellite crash occur which damages or even wrecks something really important like communication or GPS sattelites etc.

- Peter.

__________________
2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

Geosynchronous orbits would require a propagation delay of about 1/3 second. So to get crisp response times the satellites have to be near earth, which means they'll be in constant motion relative to any surface point, which means you need many satellites. Maybe it's ok to settle for terrestrial 5G. Really, is reading the crp on this board so important?

It would be interesting to have analyzed net traffic through the years to count the number of bytes consumed by protocol, payload and advertising, and to see how it's changed. I think we'd be amazed at how much useless material has to be exchanged these days in order to get anything useful out of the web. We say we're in an information age, but it's more like the age of junk bits.