Here is the evening sky for Saturday, June 1.
See the end note about enlarging illustrations.
Mars, traveling north of the northermost part of the ecliptic, was at its greatest declination north (more than 24°) on May 16. But it is still falling lower in the evening sky, to pass behind the Sun on September 2. Mercury, moving in the opposite direction, came from behind the Sun on May 21 and will be farthest out on June 23.
The Moon is well below the horizon at this time – it will be New, passing the Sun, on June 3. So the sky will be dark, if clear of clouds and of light-pollution.
But here is a guess at what this sky could look like after Elon Musk’s SpaceX company and nine others have launched their “constellations” of commercial satellites.
Musk’s first 60 Starlink satellites were “blasted into space” on May 30.
They were 280 miles up and crossing from horizon to horizon in about five minutes. Their eventual height will be 240 miles, so that they will be less bright but above the horizon for longer and in sunlight for longer. They will be visible for three or four hours after sunset and before sunrise, which means that in the summer they will be visible all night.
There will be a first 1,584 of these satellites, and eventually 12,000. They are to be used for internet communication. Besides SpaceX, nine other companies are working on this “global space internet.”
Astronomers, as quoted by the press, were “surprised.” “Everyone’s quite surprised by how bright they are,” said one. They experienced “dismay as they began to calculate the potentially drastic impact on people’s views of the cosmos.” One might expect them to have rather easily, and early, calculated the extra light added to the sky and the area of sky blocked for telescopes. And one might expect a science correspondent to write a more astronomy-literate sentence than “Since the satellites are higher than the Earth’s surface, they remain illuminated by sunlight after sunset here.”
On looking again at the article, I see that I may have been optimistic about the density. Here’s how the first “train” of Starlinks appeared as it went over Holland.
Is our children’s view of the universe to be roofed off by these “constellations”?
There is something of an analogy with the constellation, or procession, or ant-trail of people now to be seen on Mount Everest. This photograph of a couple of days ago gave me a sharp shock.
Where is Sirius? Where is the long outdoors apprenticeship of getting to know the starry sky? Where is the epic of the gradual winning to the world’s summit?
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ILLUSTRATIONS in these posts are made with precision but have to be inserted in another format. You may be able to enlarge them on your monitor. One way: right-click, and choose “View image”, then enlarge. Or choose “Copy image”, then put it on your desktop, then open it. On an iPad or phone, use the finger gesture that enlarges (spreading with two fingers, or tapping and dragging with three fingers). I am grateful to know of what methods work for you.
This weblog maintains its right to be about astronomy or anything under the sun.
Maybe they should paint the satellites black.
I read that the traffic jams on Everest are because the local government does not want to limit Everest climbing permits because it is the area’s main source of income.
To accommodate all the Everest seekers, I would suggest that the Sherpas build stairs/landings on Mt. Everest. These can be chiseled into the mountain ridge. They can place wind / solar powered oxygen concentrating pumps on the landings.
They could also chisel the summit so there would be a wider (flat top) summit. This would lower the height of the mountain but it would still be the highest mountain n the world. If the mountain top is flattened it may return to its original elevation: the Himalayas are rising because the Indian tectonic plate is still pushing under Asia.
Nice piece of (I hope) satire, Rick. I would further suggest a ski-lift all the way from the base camp – no, from the Rongbuk Monastery – no, from Kathandu. And a heliport at the summit, and a luxury hotel with pool, gym, dance floor, and Sherpa-cuisine restaurant, rotating for views over Nepal and Tibet. Menagerie featuring Yeti.
The Himalayas are rising, but it looks to me that Everest’s stteply sloping summit slab is due to detach and slide off and crash into the Western Cwm before long. You might suggest an internationally funded steel and concrete mountain-reinforcement project. I would prefer to let things be.
It is going to destroy the space and there is already a lot of junk orbiting earth!
Typo: Eventual orbit is 340 miles ….
Not an issue. The satellites are already high enough and spread out enough to be a bit of fun to find with binoculars. Once again, the astronomy community has overreacted (aggressively) to encourage observing and (reactionary) to alert that the sky is ruined. The sky IS ruined, but this is because of the light pollution on the ground.
I share your concern for our future experience of the night sky.
Bob King wrote an informative blog post about this yesterday:
https://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/spacex-launches-starlink-satellites/
(I wrote a comment.)
Marco Langbroek shot the video shortly after the satellites were released en masse from a Falcon 9 rocket. They will quickly spread out to their intended orbits, so they only look like this shortly after launch.
By the way, last week I visited a friend who now lives near Eureka on the far northern California coast. We went to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. One of the park’s prime attractions is Fern Canyon. From the park’s brochure: “In Fern Canyon, earth-fragrant morning mists silence the lush greenery, while distant bird songs blend with the rippling sounds of nearby Home Creek. … This spectacular, shady canyon’s 50-foot walls, draped with seven kinds of ferns, resemble a hanging garden. … The canyon’s restful quiet is broken only by far-off bird songs and the distant sounds of breaking waves.” I was looking forward to experiencing the canyon, and so were hundreds of other people. The trail through the canyon was a nearly unbroken queue of people from all over the world. 90% of my attention was devoted to not bumping into my fellow humans, leaving little time for the plants. I didn’t hear any birds nor the ocean until after my friend and I had fled the canyon to a nearby, less spectacular, less populated trail. I have sadly put Fern Canyon on my growing list of places that are being loved to death. I don’t blame people for wanting to see them, but I won’t add to the crush.