5am talk tomorrow "No, that's not a UFO, that's Starlink" for the IAU General Assembly, about how astronomers are doing ALL of the public education for satellite companies while they destroy the sky, the atmosphere, and Low Earth Orbit for profit. Meanwhile, every fucking article that talks about SpaceX includes the line "SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment." Do better, SpaceX. You suck.
I hope I am tired enough that I avoid rage-screaming over Zoom.
It's just after 5am, I've been signed in to the (empty) Zoom room for 15 min (as I was directed) but nobody is here yet to test my presentation, and I can't hear the sound in the room (but I *can* hear annoying hold music). And I heard that in the previous session all the remote speakers had no sound. So...I'm not real confident this is going to work...
Why are hybrid meetings so hard to implement?
Yana Yakushina ran a big analysis of individual countries' rules around dark skies, quiet skies, and reduction of impacts to astronomy.
She didn't say this outright, but my takeaway is that astronomy IS space exploration and thus should be protected by the Outer Space Treaty. But some countries have pushed astronomy to the sidelines.
She says the primary area for national-level legislation that is effective is environmental law and space law, and sometimes protection of cultural heritage
@sundogplanets I wish we took light pollution more seriously for urban planning. The new high-efficiency LED street lights are a step in the right direction (though the more efficient "daylight" colour balance is super annoying and hard on animals/insects). Too many buildings have security lights pointing partly into the sky.
Once we eliminate combustion vehicles and furnaces, air quality will improve immensely, and that should help. I couldn't believe how blue the sky was after a month of COVID-prevention restrictions that dropped car traffic.
Prof. Sam Lawler
Dan Neuman 🇨🇦