Astronomy vs Starlink: satellites for the global Internet Elon Musk prevented from observing the comet Neowise

An event significant for astronomers took place this month: a comet flew close to the Earth

C/2020 F3 (Neowise). However, not everyone was able to capture the memorable moment, and all because of the Starlink satellites.

What happened

Astrophotographer Daniel shared his failureLopez (Daniel Lopez). This week he set up in Teide National Park in the Canary Islands with a 200mm Canon lens to photograph the comet. But as a result, the picture was spoiled: the image of the starry sky was striped by satellites for the deployment of the global Internet of Elon Musk’s Starlink company.


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“Astronomers, astrophysicists and astrophotographersconcerned about the large deployment of small satellites orbiting the Earth. They want to launch about 40,000 [satellites] later, other companies will want to launch their own into orbit, and the sky will not be the same as it has been for millions of years,” says Daniel Lopez.

He also emphasizes that “this is the end of astronomical observation as we know it.”

And indeed, astronomers have previously reported damage to their research due to satellites. Therefore, Starlink promised to dim the satellites so that they would not interfere with scientific work.

But for ordinary residents flying in the skyColumns of luminous satellites present a rather interesting sight. There are even websites online that calculate when and where you can enjoy your flight. For example, Find Starlink, where you simply need to indicate your city and get the necessary information about the nearest visible spans.

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