11–20 of 66 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m seeking funding to open up a rail gun ranch where you can sit in your lawn chair and blow satellites out of the sky.
Probably legal in Texas? If it's directly over "your land?"
sadly won't be possible for anything serious next decade as each space trillionaire and country launches their own 10,000+ constellations sky will be constantly twinkling, will be weird we'll have to switch to space telescopes above LEO https://satellitemap.space
Satellites don’t include light sources and there’s nothing to illuminate them when in earth’s shadow. In order to interfere with light based astronomy they need to be outside of earths shadow and someone needs to be actively taking a picture of that chunk of sky. As these satellites orbit close to earth almost the entire sky is clear near solar midnight.
Major ground based telescopes can also add a shutter to block light detection for the fraction of a second a satellite would interfere. Basically at increasing magnification you’re looking at an ever smaller percentage of the sky which means the odds of a satellite, even one of millions, being in the shot for a given second is low. It’s still an issue, but being 99.X% as effective is good enough not to be a major concern.
Where it’s a concern is whole sky observation where you can’t easily add a shutter and losing a significant portion of the sky every night is a real problem. Amateur astronomy has the same basic options, but will often run into avoidable issues.
> 550 telescopes
So about ~55 to 60k USD a month to just have some telescopes on your land? Nice little earner.
Why do they pay for this?
If you want to see my progress (mostly gated by the sky): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOgT48pM4GctL_nuv37vc...
I want to get it pointing out overflights and satellites by name, but I'm not there yet.
> from as little as 99 USD a month > 550 telescopes So about ~55 to 60k USD a month to just have some telescopes on your land? Nice little earner.
What do people do with this astronomical data? Why do they pay for this?
Most hobbies with gear have setup costs and it's not unusual for that to be in the several thousand dollar range, and maintenance costs. $100-400/month for a hobby isn't all that much and it gives you exclusive access to your own scope in ideal skies that you can operate from your home.