Science

usonian

(17,209 posts) Sat Apr 19, 2025, 01:34 PM Saturday

A Stunning Image of the Australian Desert Illuminates the Growing Problem of Satellite Pollution

April 18, 2025
Grace Ebert

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2025/04/a-stunning-image-of-the-australian-desert-illuminates-the-growing-problem-of-satellite-pollution/

In January 2021, Joshua Rozells ventured out into the Pinnacles Desert in Western Australia, intending to photograph a star trail. But after shooting for more than three hours and reviewing his images, he realized that the light patterns he captured weren’t what he had hoped for.

“There were satellite trails visible in almost every single photo,” he wrote on Instagram. “Instead of trying to get rid of them for a star trail, I decided to put the satellite trails together into a single image to show how polluted the night sky is becoming.”

Stitching together 343 distinct photos, Rozells illuminates a growing problem. When Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched Starlink in 2019, 60 satellites filled the skies, with a race from other companies to follow. That number has now topped 10,000, with tens of thousands more in the works. SpaceX alone plans to launch 40,000 more.

Original: https://kottke.org/25/04/swamped-skies

No wide-angle lens?

11 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

A Stunning Image of the Australian Desert Illuminates the Growing Problem of Satellite Pollution (Original Post) usonian Saturday OP

That is a stunning and damning image. erronis Saturday #1

That is something to hope for... The end of SpaceX and particularly Starlink! liberalla Saturday #5

That's just awful JoseBalow Saturday #2

Sad, yet AllBlue Saturday #3

Satellites are global. Will get the same result in the most remote spots. nilram Saturday #8

Wide-angle lens? Shipwack Saturday #4

The sky looks like a cutting board nuxvomica Saturday #6

I have a big problem with satellite trails when doing night photography at the wilderness fire lookout tower. Bo Zarts Saturday #7

DURec leftstreet Saturday #9

When these satellites burn back to earth airplaneman Sunday #10

Manned flights may become too dangerous. central scrutinizer Sunday #11

erronis

(19,139 posts)

1. That is a stunning and damning image.

Reply to usonian (Original post)

Sat Apr 19, 2025, 01:51 PM

Saturday

It'll take millennia before that type of pollution disappears.

Oh, I see in a comment on the kottke.org site:

The one nice thing about these being in very low orbit is that they don’t last long with out active effort. Perhaps SpaceX will cease to exist soon and if that’s the case, these will burn up on their own.

liberalla

(10,428 posts)

5. That is something to hope for... The end of SpaceX and particularly Starlink!

Reply to erronis (Reply #1)

Sat Apr 19, 2025, 03:33 PM

Saturday

(at least as they exist now)

Thanks for posting that comment.

JoseBalow

(7,252 posts)

2. That's just awful

Reply to usonian (Original post)

Sat Apr 19, 2025, 02:34 PM

Saturday

What a sad shame.

AllBlue

(85 posts)

3. Sad, yet

Reply to usonian (Original post)

Sat Apr 19, 2025, 03:02 PM

Saturday

Not unexpeted. She is likely in the northern suburbs of Perth, a larger city nearing the size or Portland OR. In Perth's case more than 250,000 current population.

nilram

(3,156 posts)

8. Satellites are global. Will get the same result in the most remote spots.

Reply to AllBlue (Reply #3)

Sat Apr 19, 2025, 03:43 PM

Saturday

Shipwack

(2,610 posts)

4. Wide-angle lens?

Reply to usonian (Original post)

Sat Apr 19, 2025, 03:18 PM

Saturday

No wide-angle lens?

There are a few possible answers to this question.

1) A wide-angle lens wasn’t used because this type of lens usually has distortion along the edges of the photo, especially for more distant objects.

2) One was used, and during post processing the distortion was removed by the software. (My personal guess).

3) One was used, but the distorted areas were cropped out.

I’m not sure of the answer because the photographer didn’t include camera data on his post on Instagram, not even in the comment section. By the way, this shot was chosen as a NASA image of the day.

nuxvomica

(13,266 posts)

6. The sky looks like a cutting board

Reply to usonian (Original post)

Sat Apr 19, 2025, 03:34 PM

Saturday

One that has been heavily used.

Bo Zarts

(25,968 posts)

7. I have a big problem with satellite trails when doing night photography at the wilderness fire lookout tower.

Reply to usonian (Original post)

Sat Apr 19, 2025, 03:39 PM

Saturday

It’s almost impossible to do any exposure longer than about 20 seconds without getting a satellite trail .. and Elon’s Starlink seems to be the most ubiquitous source of my light pollution. Fortunately these trails are usually easy to remove from an image with Lightroom or Photoshop.