Amazon satellites add to astronomers' worries about night sky
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Re: Amazon satellites add to astronomers' worries about night sky
#2[deleted]
Re: Amazon satellites add to astronomers' worries about night sky
#3Is this really a worry? Won't all the gear eventually be moved off Earth and into space making this argument pointless?
I'm guessing amateurs with a telescope in their backyard are the ones suffering?
Re: Amazon satellites add to astronomers' worries about night sky
#4Is this really a worry? Won't all the gear eventually be moved off Earth and into space making this argument pointless? I'm guessing amateurs with a telescope in their backyard are the ones suffering?
Some of those amateurs are doing pretty useful work.
https://twitter.com/SuperASASSN
https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Space/story?id=8221167
It's going to be a long time (if ever) before space gets cheap and accessible enough to replace these folks.
(The article, incidentally, shows photos from a four meter telescope. That's... probably not amateur astronomy.)
Re: Amazon satellites add to astronomers' worries about night sky
#5Who knew that astronomers would be the luddite reactionaries holding science and technology back? They seemed to laugh and cheer every time an astronomical satellite was put into orbit, but frown and shake their fingers when other people wish to utilize space as well.
Astronomers don't own space. And by laughing and cavorting, dancing jigs when astronomical satellites are put into orbit but screeching "OH WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN" when somebody else uses space, they have taken their scientific and social credibility down a large notch.
Pretty soon nobody will care what they have to say. Their job is to quietly lurk behind bushes at night, and solve problems nobody asked the answers to, to silently publish them in unread journals, praying for a professorship which will allow travel to exotic destinations where telescopes just "happen" to be best situated.
Ugh. Chuds.
Re: Amazon satellites add to astronomers' worries about night sky
#6Who knew that astronomers would be the luddite reactionaries holding science and technology back? They seemed to laugh and cheer every time an astronomical satellite was put into orbit, but frown and shake their fingers when other people wish to utilize space as well. Astronomers don't own space. And by laughing and cavorting, dancing jigs when astronomical satellites are put into orbit but screeching "OH WON'T SOMEB…
> Astronomers don't own space.
OK, but neither does SpaceX, right?
If I make a mess of public lands, I can get in trouble. The international legal framework around the use of space has clear holes in it - it still focuses around nation state actions with little consideration to commercial use - and there's nothing wrong with talking about that.
Re: Amazon satellites add to astronomers' worries about night sky
#7Who knew that astronomers would be the luddite reactionaries holding science and technology back? They seemed to laugh and cheer every time an astronomical satellite was put into orbit, but frown and shake their fingers when other people wish to utilize space as well. Astronomers don't own space. And by laughing and cavorting, dancing jigs when astronomical satellites are put into orbit but screeching "OH WON'T SOMEB…
Please don't do this here.
Re: Amazon satellites add to astronomers' worries about night sky
#8Who knew that astronomers would be the luddite reactionaries holding science and technology back? They seemed to laugh and cheer every time an astronomical satellite was put into orbit, but frown and shake their fingers when other people wish to utilize space as well. Astronomers don't own space. And by laughing and cavorting, dancing jigs when astronomical satellites are put into orbit but screeching "OH WON'T SOMEB…
> Astronomers don't own space. OK, but neither does SpaceX, right? If I make a mess of public lands, I can get in trouble. The international legal framework around the use of space has clear holes in it - it still focuses around nation state actions with little consideration to commercial use - and there's nothing wrong with talking about that.
[deleted]
Re: Amazon satellites add to astronomers' worries about night sky
#9Is this really a worry? Won't all the gear eventually be moved off Earth and into space making this argument pointless? I'm guessing amateurs with a telescope in their backyard are the ones suffering?
From what I understand, ground based astronomy is still really important. Not everyone can afford to spend millions to get a new satellite into orbit. Plus once it's up there you are stuck for decades. You can't make changes or test out new hardware. There's also bandwidth problems. A lot of projects are coming up around rapid full sky surveys. IE look at the whole sky every 15 minutes or something like that and look for rare transient events. That would be tough to do in orbit.
Re: Amazon satellites add to astronomers' worries about night sky
#10Who knew that astronomers would be the luddite reactionaries holding science and technology back? They seemed to laugh and cheer every time an astronomical satellite was put into orbit, but frown and shake their fingers when other people wish to utilize space as well. Astronomers don't own space. And by laughing and cavorting, dancing jigs when astronomical satellites are put into orbit but screeching "OH WON'T SOMEB…
Please don't do this here.
Do what? Point out the petulance and inconsistency of astronomers?