I see an opportunity for laser shooting practice. Guaranteed those satellites can be easily disabled by firing a few hundred watts of concentrated coherent light.
I've read somewhere that SpaceX has been subject to backlash for not making their low-orbit Starlink satellites dark (they currently are reflective like mirrors). The new batches they are launching are now non-reflective. That doesn't solve the problem of interruption of signal from telescopes tracking/capturing long exposure images.
Artificial satellites around the Earth are a new form of light pollution. Those on low-earth orbits can be especially bright. Companies plan to launch tens of thousands of such satellites, and our view of the night sky, constellations and the Milky Way may be entirely lost. Please sign the following petition, and share it with your friends (and ask them to sign and share). SpaceX satellites marching through the sky from Brazil, late 2019. Note that the satellites are brighter than the brightest stars.
Only a few stars in the sky outshine space x's cluster of satellites.
I live in the middle of no-fucking-where I can go outside about any clear night and see Andromeda with the naked eye after 15-20 minutes of dark acclimation. Just after sunset and just before dawn I can spot shit tons of satellites starlink, ISS, Iridium, etc. While they are more numerous and thus easier to spot after an hour or two you can't hardly spot shit except for the high orbit sats.
While I agree that the number of satellites brings many problems the light pollution one has been over blown. Only a small percentage of observations would be affected.
I don't like or trust Musk but, there seems to be a massive effort by the top to make him look as bad as possible.
I've got nothing against musk but it's a thing, even in a middling sized suburban city environment you'll be able to see 4- 5 stars tops on your avg good night. while i think musk was unfairly targeted he himself isn't really the issue. Energy costs have been reliably rising for decades, the tax subsidies the us govt offered on teslas and various electric cars are drying up. It's always some new green scam... like when regular gas wasn't good enough so we tapped us corn production to supplement 10% of it w/ ethanol that's just plain shittier fuel that doesn't burn as well.
I've got a 2013 Fux-Fuel Silverado and the vodka laced shit works better than the "normal" gas with all of the other bullshit additives. Side note, don't buy a Silverado they are shit. Mine eats a quart of oil for every 40-50 gallons of gas. It holds 6 quarts but, I'll put 8 to 10 in it total over time every oil change.
Whoever is planning that is an idiot. LEO will be nothing but a cloud of shrapnel before starlink is even finished.
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