Is Elon Musk Ruining Astrophotography?

in #life2 years ago

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A clear sky in Atacama with the milky way overhead

I am a big fan of Elon Musk and everything he is doing at SpaceX. I fully believe in their mission to Mars. But is his latest Starlink mission to provide the world with good wifi polluting our skies?

The other night I was out on my own freezing cold photographing the milky way. I was shooting long exposures up to 20 seconds each time continuously for about an hour. It wasn't until I looked back on my photos that I realized how much pollution was in my photos and this time it wasnt from street lights. Elon Musk's Starlink satellites are thousands of mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit, aimed at giving the world satellite internet. Magnificent as they appear if you've ever seen them fly by they can also be detrimental if you are photographing the milky way at that particular time.

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Starlink Satellites passing through my milky way photo

I am not criticising Elon Musk but just putting it out there, do you guys think it's becoming a problem to have some many low orbit satellites polluting our sky or not?

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When did you shoot that? I wonder if those are some of the ones in the process of falling out of orbit because of the solar storm.

It is known they still cause issues within their normal orbit for astrophotography and astronomical observations, so I don't think so.