UKH

youtube.com/watch?v=Mzt18-WhkvQ&

Looks amazing - if you had no idea you might think we were about to be invaded by aliens

Amazing to you perhaps. F***ing annoying to myself and the other thousands of astro-photographers (and even simple observers) who have their images ruined by broad white stripes running through them.  

Yep, saw it near Aix-les-Bains last summer.

Some friends were bordering on alien invasion until someone said what it was

Ha! fair enough, wouldn't that happen with aeroplanes/other satellites/space station as well?

True. However, the number of StarLink objects took me by surprise. This was shared on UKC a little while ago - https://satellitemap.space/ 

Live map of the StarLink objects. You can see where the current "trains" are before they disperse.

😮 Wow!!  And We're cross with Musk for ruining Twitter!!!

I do hate people who are spoil sports, if it was me I'd have been telling them why it could only be aliens, then lead into some theory  why aliens would necessarily be hostile. What a missed opportunity.

I thought they'd put stuff on (shields or something) so that you couldn't see them reflecting like that anymore - that video was apparently a year ago and the shielding started before then.

I saw the third train to be launched as it was raising orbit and very visible.  Awe inspiring sight that redefines how big the sky feels, much like watching a total eclipse of the sun.

New launches are much less visible during orbit raise so I’m glad I caught it.

If you do image stacking it’s not exactly hard to mitigate though.

As one Reddit poster succinctly says, “technology solves the problems technology creates”

https://www.reddit.com/r/Astronomy/comments/n91hto/effects_of_image_stackin...

We can all share the sky. 

yes it does.  Luckily my stacking software has an algorithm that removes most satellite trails but aeroplane and starlink trails pose too much of a challenge. 

See my reply above. I use deep Sky Stacker and yes, it can mitigate standard satellite trails but Starlink trails and the triple lines of aircraft are too intrusive to be wiped out.  Those subs get deleted. 

It would be nice if they asked if they can share before they insert the next several thousand up there. So far there's over 4500 and musk says he wants 42000! and there doesn't seem to be any control.

I was building kit for professional astronomers for a decade.  Neither professional nor amateur astronomers ever asked satellite or aviation providers if they could share the sky.  Edit: instead they used the cash spend in relatively poor islands to get local government to enact lighting controls and no fly zones for their benefit - very one sided.

Funny, other people manage to mitigate these, as per my Reddit link above.  There’s also enough information from various sources on orbital elements to intelligently schedule observations.

It’s not ideal that people have to work harder to take photographs for hobby interest, but that is tensioned against the undeniable benefits aircraft and satellites including Starlink provide.

What’s needed is a collaborative approach to helping hobbyists mitigate the effects.  Part of the problem is Musk’s ongoing descent into weapons grade asshatery but none the less, Starlink is evolving its darkening mitigations and is looking to share that.  With good commercial reason - these satellites have clear military value and become clear military targets.  Being hard to spot can only be in their interest….

There is regulation, by the FCC, so it's not that there's no oversight, it's just that you disagree with their decision.

I agree with your statement, but it is noteworthy that most satellites traverse many different nations but that their launch is regulated by but one.  This is in accordance with the way space law has developed and it’s hard to imagine beneficial use of space being made if all overflown nations had a veto, but the situation does leave members of nations A, B and C with very little say about satellites launched by nation Z.

Assuming graeme is a Brit, as you say he disagrees with the regulation by the USA’s FCC but he has no formal route to express that disagreement.

Space law is rapidly going to heat up with emerging seismic shifts in launch capacity.  Seems likely to me that it’s going to be settled by force more than international law given the widening asymmetry between US vs rest of world launch capability and the ongoing floundering of the UN in to insignificance in terms of ability to prevent international violence.