Dr. John Barentine FRAS

New paper from the U.S. National Park Service Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division: "Fisheye Night Sky Imager: A Calibrated Tool to Measure Night Sky Brightness" https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1538-3873/ad6bc1 (open access)

#LightPollution #DarkSkies #NightSkyBrightness #Conservation #Instrumentation

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Aug 29, 2024 at 6:09pmWeb
Show threadMichael Bishop ☕Aug 29, 2024

@JohnBarentine

Have you seen this company who is selling sunlight at night? They will point their sun refectors to anywhere on earth at a cost. I don't see them having concern for light pollution.

https://www.reflectorbital.com/

Reflect Orbital

Sunlight after dark

Show threadDr. John Barentine FRASAug 29, 2024
@MichaelBishop I have. That link is making the rounds today. I have a lot of thoughts. In short: (1) it's a potentially legitimate "use" of outer space as the Outer Space Treaty contemplates such things; (2) there are no laws/treaties prohibiting it; (3) no one has successfully demonstrated the technology (yet); and (4) it has the potential to be highly disruptive to astronomy, but we don't yet know how significant it might be. Lots of unanswered questions!