Dr. John Barentine FRASI'm happy to report that after a very long two years and many delays, the IAU Symposium No. 385 proceedings volume is finally published by Cambridge University Press. It's probably the most extensive/complete source on #DarkAndQuietSkies to date.
Dr. Jürgen KnödlsederHi #IAUS385 attendants, before you mourn next time about someone else's impact, checkout yours using the travel footprint calculator https://travel-footprint-calculator.irap.omp.eu:
Madrid-La Palma: 728.3 kg CO2e
Paris-La Palma: 1.1 t CO2e
Rome-La Palma: 1.2 t CO2e
Frankfurt-La Palma: 1.3 tCO2e
New York-La Palma: 1.8 tCO2e
Sydney-La Palma: 6.4 tCO2e
Benjamin WinkelI participated in a wonderful conference this week on the beautiful island of La Palma (Spain). It was IAU Symposium 385 about the protection of the dark and quiet skies from satellite constellation interference and pathways forward. #IAUS385
The conference was also featured in a nice Wired article https://www.wired.com/story/as-amazon-launches-project-kuiper-astronomers-debate-how-to-fix-a-satellite-filled-sky/
Ramin Skibba interviewed several of the participants for this, including myself.
miangulo_95@raulclima @salvabara es tremendo, esta semana en La Palma #IAUS385 sobre SATCONS y sus consecuencias.
@miangulo_95 Yet organising #IAUS385 on an island in the Atlantic Ocean which can only be decently reached by air plane is kind of being part of the problem.
En la #isladeLaPalma se celebra #IAUS385 Simposium para dar a conocer las últimas investigaciones sobre las megaconstelaciones. Es tremendo lo que estos satélites le está haciendo a las astronomía terrestre, pero también a la espacial. Esta es una de las diapositivas mostradas. Las rayas son las trazas que dejan los satélites en observaciones las observacionesz IAUCPS ha publicado en Nature sobre el Bluewalker3 . https://cps.iau.org/news/further-understanding-bluewalker-3s-impact-on-astronomy/
Dr Megan ArgoMy working day started with the Today programme on #BBCRadio4 in the UK, and ended with As It Happens on #CBC in Canada! The middle was a conference in #LaPalma #IAUS385 😅
In @Nature today: "Huge new satellite outshines nearly every star in the sky" https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03054-x plus research article on the high optical brightness of this satellite. #IAUS385
(I took this myself on November 30th 2022 with my phone from the back garden. That streak is #BlueWalker3 passing through Cygnus 😳)
Prof. Sam LawlerIt is not inevitable yet how the story in orbit will unfold. Inevitability becomes the justification for moving forward, but it's not inevitable. The skies belong to all of us, not just humans, need to honour that through advocacy.
Noctalgia: "sky grief", she recently wrote a Science e-letter on this with @JohnBarentine: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-loss-of-dark-skies-is-so-painful-astronomers-coined-a-new-term-for-it1/
Advocates for a UN statement/treaty on safeguarding outer space as a shared commons of our cultural heritage
Points out that there's already a cost to satellites in research astronomy: brighter skies mean we can do less science with the same amount of taxpayer $ due to the actions of for-profit private companies. This hugely affects traditional stargazing, highlights effects on Wayfinding: dawn or dusk are when satellite light pollution is worst, when observations are most important for navigation.