Earlier quoted context omitted.
The photographer has admitted that he used stacking to create the image.
But isn’t stacking used for astro-photography all the time?
Yes. The same tool can be used to either remove or emphasize streaks.
Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps
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Re: Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps
#202"...that said, we’ll make sure Starlink has no material effect on discoveries in astronomy. We care a great deal about science." Elon Musk A long exposure of Comet NEOWISE by Photographer Daniel Lopez: https://imgur.com/a/rDI1Onn N.B. The white streaks are Starlink constellation passthrough trajectories Starlink currently has 597 orbiting satellites they plan for more than 12k to be deployed. Amazon just got an appro…
That NEOWISE photo was 17 photos deliberately stacked to emphasise the problem rather than minimise it, so it's not really a fair datapoint. Astrophotograhy stacking software will generally remove items that don't appear in all photos in the stack rather than retain them (previous discussion on the topic: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23926699). That said, I love taking photos of the night sky myself and had some Starlink satellites affect a single exposure photo of mine recently, so it is a real issue - just not quite as crazy as it looks from that photo.
Re: Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps
#203Re: Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps
#204Starlink internet is not meant to replace hard line internet. There is no getting around the physics of cable being so much cheaper/easier. Even terrestrial cell towers are more efficient and cheaper than satellites. This is 100% meant to supplement existing infrastructure not to replace it. You will almost always get cheaper and faster internet (for both you and the company providing internet) over a cable to your h…
Would this improve the internet quality on planes? Just wondering how that could get better... its absolutely crap most of the time
Poor quality of internet on planes is usually due to too many people on the plane trying to do high-bandwidth things at the same time when the connection was never designed for that level of saturation. Domestic flights usually connect to ground-based stations to provide in-flight wi-fi, which probably have similar throughput capabilities to Starlink, so I don't think this would help much. International flights use satellite connections, though, and this would definitely help there.
Re: Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps
#205This would have been awesome in Alaska, where we had only one option for ISP... we weren't in the boonies either. We just barely got DSL.
Re: Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
Starlink can't handle that many people, so it's a moot point that there are a theoretical 41 million potential customers. You can build out landlines far more easily than you can launch satellites; you just need the cable/fiber and some guys to dig a trench. The reason it hasn't happened is because it's not worth the financial investment without government subsidies (and this is why the federal government provides so…
> You can build out landlines far more easily than you can launch satellites; Each satellite costs SpaceX about $250K to build and $500K to launch and services thousands of customers. That same $750K might buy you a mile or so of trenching and cable. Many rural customers need multiple miles each.
Plus, if these satellites are mass produced, then I'd expect the price to drop because they figure out ways to make them cheaper.
Re: Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are a bunch or articles that talk about people using balloons to send material to North Korea. The Human Rights Foundation even collects flash drives to load them up with content to smuggle into North Korea: https://flashdrivesforfreedom.org
For private groups, or individuals, sure you can get away with this. For a government to do this? How could that not lead to an armed conflict?
How do governments airdrop supplies into war-torn countries today? I’ll admit I’m no expert but I see headlines all the time of neutral nations sending supplies to other countries who are fighting a war and that neutral nation isn’t getting dragged into the fight.
Re: Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps
#208"...that said, we’ll make sure Starlink has no material effect on discoveries in astronomy. We care a great deal about science." Elon Musk A long exposure of Comet NEOWISE by Photographer Daniel Lopez: https://imgur.com/a/rDI1Onn N.B. The white streaks are Starlink constellation passthrough trajectories Starlink currently has 597 orbiting satellites they plan for more than 12k to be deployed. Amazon just got an appro…
This image was pretty thoroughly panned as being either ignorant or malicious - there’s as much light coming off planes in the sky, yet astronomers don’t complain about that. That’s not to say the satellite aren’t irritating, but astronomers have mitigation mechanisms. SpaceX doing well is also a net good thing, because it’s getting cheaper to put the telescopes in orbit, which is where we really want them to be. Ear…
> there’s as much light coming off planes in the sky
If you live right outside of an international airport, maybe, but there are areas where this is not true at all. Observatories are strategically built to be far away from such light pollution. StarLink encircles the globe, and there is no way to build around it.
Re: Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps
#209"...that said, we’ll make sure Starlink has no material effect on discoveries in astronomy. We care a great deal about science." Elon Musk A long exposure of Comet NEOWISE by Photographer Daniel Lopez: https://imgur.com/a/rDI1Onn N.B. The white streaks are Starlink constellation passthrough trajectories Starlink currently has 597 orbiting satellites they plan for more than 12k to be deployed. Amazon just got an appro…
Once we can colonize Mars and set up astronomy observatories on Mars, Starlink satellites orbiting Earth won't get in the way of astronomy discoveries.
The starlink satellites orbiting Mars might!
Re: Beta users of Starlink get downloads of 11 to 60 Mbps
#210Starlink internet is not meant to replace hard line internet. There is no getting around the physics of cable being so much cheaper/easier. Even terrestrial cell towers are more efficient and cheaper than satellites. This is 100% meant to supplement existing infrastructure not to replace it. You will almost always get cheaper and faster internet (for both you and the company providing internet) over a cable to your h…
A lot of what you're saying isn't actually true here.
Light moves significantly (47%) slower through optical fiber than through space. This drastically reduces the latency of long distance connections. We're talking NY round trip to Japan in the same time it takes NY roundtrip to the UK now.
The cost of backhaul and ongoing maintenance of cables is a lot more than SpaceX launching their own satellites by an entire order of magnitude.