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Anyone else a bit unnerved by the number of visible satellites?
I have always know there are satellites going around the earth, but more often that not now when I casually inspect the night sky I see at least one moving satellite. It’s obvious and no need for any telescope. It feels so different than when I was younger: instead of a sense of wonder at the scale of the universe and nature, it’s a constant reminder of the pervasiveness of humanity’s technology and scope for surveillance.
I don’t really have a specific point from this post other than to express a sorrow for the loss of a night sky from my youth.
Personally I like it because it makes me think I live in the future I thought I would when I was a child. Many, many other things have fallen short of my childhood future but the night sky isn't one of them, all we need now is a giant orbital space station that would be visible to the naked eye :)
Ah yes, a nice visible space station that only the insanely rich are allowed to live on while they extract the rest of the wealth and resources from earth and we all suffer and die. Just like the movie Elysium.
So far the only people on space stations are scientists so I don't know why you'd think this. And it seems kinda miserable to actually live on a space station vs. the surface of Earth so I can't imagine many rich people opting to be up there.
I don't think you've watched/read enough science fiction. The term "space station" is pretty loose and many of them can mimic the environments of Earth and even improve upon it.
I was thinking about what an actual near-future large space station would be like.
Y'all just came at the same thought from different angles.
It is interesting how large the breadth of options are.
Honestly at this point I'd take even that. I miss the night sky. When I was a kid, even in the city I could look outside and see much of the stars. Being at my grandparents' place in the country (rural but not remote) and seeing the spill of the Milky Way was amazing. But the sky has gotten less and less visible as I've gotten older. I never get to see it anymore, without traveling into basically the wilderness. I think it's been decades since I last saw it unobstructed. I don't think I could see a satellite moving across the sky on even the clearest night, at least not here. I'm doing good to see Orion's Belt most of the year.
I have some astronomer friends who lament about light pollution on a regular basis, it's a real problem for them. Their 50+ year old observatories used to be in the dark outside town. Now the towns surround them and put up skyscrapers.
I was hoping that the swap from Soda Lamps to LED lighting would improve it, with more directional light and less excess shine, but it seems to have done nothing for ground-level light pollution. Short of demanding that all lights be turned off or at least set to a lower lumen level at night, I don't that there's a good solution. I was told that the lights being on is there to help deter criminals, but crime still happens in the night anyway so maybe that wasn't such a good reason to bathe our cities in eternal light.
I feel you. It also wrecks life for nocturnal animals.
Motion sensors with very short timeouts would help. Or switching it all to red light.
I'm team 'all outdoor lights switch off at 10PM' though. Maybe we'll all get some more sleep.
My neighbors always have their lights on because of ONE time a teenager was up to no good and looking for unlocked cars in the neighborhood. It depresses me :( and I feel bad for all the wildlife. My mom says I shouldn't dwell on such things but it's hard when the mega bright lights are shining into my room all night. Sigh. Maybe I should think about some blackout curtains...
The point on surveillance hits home for me. Soon we are never going to be able to escape cameras pointed at us all the time and we won't have any privacy, in or out of our homes. Soon it will be frivolous to record everyone all the time.
It already is, the permeation of Ring and Nest has bonkers level of coverage. Plus you can't step within 500ft of any retail establishment without being in sight of at least 5 cameras.
Plus, you are 100% trusting that your phone isn't lying to you and isn't recording you whenever it damn well feels like it.
In a similar vein, I love cities but light pollution makes me angry. I want much, MUCH tighter rules around lights at night. Cities can and should be much closer to dark sky status than they are. We might not be able to see the full Milky Way from the middle of a city, but we could see far more stars. Shielding, color temp ~2700K, and smart/motion lighting to start.
Funny, I live in a city and light pollution is actually one of my pluses; I really like that even at its darkest, it's never too dark. I grew up in the country, and when it got dark it got pitch black, and while there was very little actual danger (no strangers around, and not the dangerous variety of wildlife) it was still very unnerving to not be able to see 20 feet ahead of you unless it was a full moon.
Granted, I would love to see more stars, and I can't comment on the environmental impacts of light pollution (I'm sure there are some, but I don't know them), but as a general vibe I enjoy having some light all the time
I grew up in the country, went to college in the city and stayed there for 10+ years, and moved back to the country and this is one of the reasons why. I need that organic night.
Even 25ish years later, I still can't sleep as well as I could as I did as a country kid, and I think the lack of proper nightime is no small part of it.
Even in my own damn house I counted no less than 30 LEDs that are passively on 24/7. I've resorted to glue, tape, and perfectly tin-foiled windows.
There's a middle ground here. In many places, the lights that illuminate the ground (good) are also flooding the sky above them with light (light pollution, and also a waste of energy). Simple things, like aiming them correctly and shielding their tops, goes a very long way to improving night sky visibility without reducing ground illumination.
But I am talking about the sky pollution, how the sky is purple-ish, and even on streets with no streetlights it's still sorta visible. In theory a comprehensive street light system could handle this and also avoid light pollution, but in that absence the "ambient" sky light is appreciated.
I don't feel super strong, and I'm not going to attend a city hall meeting to oppose proper light pollution reduction or anything, but it does kind of comfort me in small ways
Idk it evokes a sense of wonder of the exponential growth of human technology. It wasn't all that long ago that humans worshipped the stars; now we launch stars of our own into the night sky.
Ok I feel like an idiot for asking this but… how is it possible to see satellites with the naked eye? Aren’t they smaller than airplanes, dramatically further away, and with no need for lights? What should I look for to identify a satellite? Are there AR apps that could identify one?
If you want to see the international space station pass over, NASA has an app that will alert you and tell you what direction to look and when it will pass. It looks like a star moving through the night sky. Other apps can show you when satellites are going by too.
They are reflecting the sun off polished metal surfaces in a dark sky. You won’t see satellites that are in earth’s shadow. They also aren’t that far away, starlink is like 550 km.
Yup, but sometimes you get the angle juuuust right with their body and/or solar panels to reflect the sun.
If you find a star that doesn't blink, isn't colored (like a plane) and that's visible more than 1 sec (like a shooting star), then it's a satellite.