You can give it a read here: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2107.12335.pdf

Here is the on the MNRAS web page for citation purposes: https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article-abstract/506/4/5046/6347233

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How bright will they really be?

In this section a way to simulate the Starlink constellation in Stellarium is given. This website provides a way to generate a satellite orbit TLE file which can be loaded into Stellarium: http://howmanystarlinkswillfillyoursky.com/

I generated the TLE file with about 12,000 satellites (initially proposed configuration which has now been increased about 4 fold) and uploaded it to the GMN site: https://globalmeteornetwork.org//public/starlink_tle.txt

You can load it into Stellarium by following these steps:

Here is how the simulation looks like:

All in all, the situation doesn’t look too bad. The satellites are few and not entirely bright, but some might interfere with meteor observations. Note that the satellites may be 4 times as numerous in the final configuration.

Meteor detection algorithms

Science loss

Orbital debris environment concerns

Aggressive space activities without adequate safeguards could significantly shorten the time between collisions and produce an intolerable hazard to future spacecraft. Some of the most environmentally dangerous activities in space include large constellations such as those initially proposed by the Strategic Defense Initiative in the mid-1980s, large structures such as those considered in the late-1970s for building solar power stations in Earth orbit, and anti-satellite warfare using systems tested by the USSR, the U.S., and China over the past 30 years. Such aggressive activities could set up a situation where a single satellite failure could lead to cascading failures of many satellites in a period much shorter than years.

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At the end of every night, just before dawn, about half of all 150+ GMN meteor cameras observe a train of parallel satellites. This is how they look like on GMN co-added images:

In this particular case, the camera on the La Palma island, next to the MAGIC telescope at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, was recording the outburst of the Alpha Monocerotid meteor shower which can be seen in the background. Here is the video of the outburst (starts at around 2:00) and the satellite passage (around 2:13 in the video):

Fortunately in this case these 60 satellites did not interfere with meteor observations, but one has to be concerned how will our skies look like when hearing that there are plans to launch a total of 42,000 satellites! This might completely deny us to do any optical meteor observations as soon as 2024.

Here is a video that shows several observations of the Starlink constellation with GMN cameras:

And here is how the Starlink constellation looks like from other GMN meteor cameras (click on image for video):

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Here is the time lapse video:

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The GMN serverside scripts are using the open-source meteor trajectory code from the Western Meteor Python Library, an implementation of the novel Monte Carlo trajectory solver which produces trajectories of superior accuracy when compared to older methods of trajectory estimation. The paper about it has been submitted to MNRAS and will be published soon.

In this first preliminary data release, we show high quality meteor orbits recorded with GMN cameras from December 2018 up until now (late August 2019). We only select meteor trajectories with the minimum of 6 astrometry measurements per station, minimum convergence angle of 5 degrees, maximum eccentricity of 1.5, maximum radiant error of 2 degrees, and the maximum velocity error of 10%. Low quality trajectories usually have a low number of data point or unfavourable observation geometry, even though the astrometry calibration is good. RMS, the software that GMN stations run, recalibrates the astrometric plate on every image that has a meteor detection, ensuring the high quality of solutions.

Figure 1 shows a Sun-centered ecliptic plot of 14 006 orbits in this first data release. The meteor orbit density is colour coded and several major showers can be seen (Perseids, Southern Delta Aquarids, Geminids, Capricornids, etc.), as well as the sporadic sources. The dataset also contains trajectories of several minor showers, e.g. 3 Camelopardalid orbits. I still need to write a module for orbital shower association, until then the association needs to be done manually.

Figure 2 shows a plot of individual orbits colour coded by the geocentric velocity in the same coordinate system. As expected, the velocities increase up to the maximum of ~71 km/s close to the Earth’s apex in the middle of the plot.

Figure 3 shows a map of 45 stations which were used for trajectory estimation. There are more stations that report meteor observations, but they are either single-station or their calibrations and geospatial coordinates need to be confirmed before they are used for trajectory estimation.

Finally, we give a link to raw data so interested readers may take a look for themselves: trajectory_summary
This data set is preliminary, thus one should keep in mind that there might be erroneous entries in it. If the data is used, we ask that you reference GMN and this blog post.

Clear skies,
Denis Vida

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Roque de los Muchachos, the highest peak of the Canarian island La Palma, is perfect location for astronomical observations: high altitude above the sea level, no light pollution, clouds below and crystal clear skies above – therefore, a real paradise for astronomers. All those features make this particular site a Mecca for observational astronomers, so it is not strange that some of the largest worldwide astrophysical collaborations have their observatories on the very top of this stunning volcanic mountain. Among a dozen prominent telescopes, Observatory Roque de los Muchachos (ORM) is home to Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) (a 10.4 m reflecting telescope which is currently the world’s largest single-aperture optical telescope), Swedish 1 m Solar Telescope (SST) (current record holder for the largest refracting telescope in the world), Cherenkov telescopes MAGIC 1 and MAGIC 2, and almost finished largest Cherenkov telescope in the world, mighty 23 m in diameter Large-Sized Telescope (LST) which is a part of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) collaboration. Right at the roof of the MAGIC telescopes’ Counting house from April the 9^th one camera of Global Meteor Network had found its new home!

We would like to thank Victor Acciari for his unselfish support and help during mounting of this camera, and also to the MAGIC executive board which provided us the location, electric current and Internet access for appropriate operation of RMS station La Palma. Next step in the development of La Palma station is to find its companion on one of the neighboring Canarian island, in order to successfully perform the triangulation and computation of meteoroid orbits.

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