Sky & Telescope - March 2020 - 4

SPECTRUM

by Peter Tyson

A Mega Dilemma

The Essential Guide to Astronomy
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A FEW YEARS AGO at a dark-sky site I was observing a deep-sky

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MARCH 2 02 0 * SK Y & TELESCOPE

EDITORIAL
Editor in Chief Peter Tyson
Senior Editors J. Kelly Beatty, Alan M. MacRobert
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SPACE X

object with my 10×42 image-stabilized binoculars when two satellites crisscrossed each other through my ﬁeld of view. It was a
sobering reminder of just how much hardware we've put up there.
Yet as most of our readers are by now acutely aware, the total
number of artiﬁcial satellites orbiting Earth - and potentially interfering with
observations and astrophotography - will increase many times over in coming
years. The aim of SpaceX and other companies entering the so-called megaconstellation arena is to provide broadband internet service around the globe.
As worthwhile a goal as that might be, its implementation will result in a
paradigm shift to ground-based astronomy, and not just for amateurs. As News
Editor Monica Young explains in her feature on page 14, professional astronomers are as wary of the planned megaconstellations as hobbyists are.
Whether this expanding type of light pollution will be as devastating to
optical astronomy as some attest remains to be seen.
What's clear is that astronomy conducted from Earth's
surface will never be the same. Market forces are driving this development, and with billions of dollars in
revenue at stake, it will go forward, juggernaut-like, no
matter how vociferous astronomers get.
Alas, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em - or at least
work with them. That's what our parent organization,
SpaceX Starlink satellites
the American Astronomical Society, and other astronjust prior to deployment
omy groups are actively trying to do. After SpaceX's
on May 24, 2019
initial launch of 60 satellites last May, the AAS Public
Policy staff, together with the AAS Committee on Light Pollution, Radio Interference, and Space Debris, formed a working group to scrutinize this mushrooming issue and seek ways to ameliorate its worst effects on astronomy.
Since then, the group has had eight telecons with SpaceX, and, according to
an AAS post on December 5th, "things are moving in a hopeful direction." For
starters, SpaceX is open to testing coatings to reduce future satellites' albedo.
The AAS is also calling for observatories and SpaceX itself to develop simulations to fully assess the impact and to help observatories avoid interference
from as many satellites in the company's Starlink megaconstellation as possible.
Altogether, the AAS has set a reasonable ad hoc bar for SpaceX and its
competitors: satisfy the needs of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope now being
built in Chile. Set to begin in 2023, the LSST's deep, wide-ﬁeld observations
might well suffer most of all from megaconstellation glare.
If SpaceX and others can meet that criterion, it would help
all astronomers better come to terms with this turn of
events. Especially, one might add, since we have no choice.

AMERICAN ASTRONOMICAL
SOCIETY
Executive Ofﬁcer / CEO, AAS Sky Publishing, LLC
Kevin B. Marvel
President Megan Donahue, Michigan State University
President Elect Paula Szkody, University of Washington
Senior Vice-President Michael Strauss, Princeton
University
Second Vice-President Joan Schmelz, Universities
Space Research Association
Third Vice-President Geoffrey C. Clayton, Louisiana
State University
Treasurer Nancy D. Morrison, University of Toledo (ret.)
Secretary Alice K. B. Monet, U.S. Naval Observatory (ret.)

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Sky & Telescope - March 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - March 2020