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Prof. Sam Lawler profile picture
Prof. Sam Lawler
@Prof. Sam Lawler


This is hideously depressing (here come the megabright satellites, screw you AST Spacemobile). But I am delighted that these authors (none of whom I've ever worked with before) use the word "megaconstellation" with no qualifiers!

Did you know that satellite companies HATE the word megaconstellation and keep requesting astronomers not use that word?

Did I mention that a significant fraction of my recently published papers have the word "megaconstellation" in the title?

Dr. John Barentine FRAS @Dr. John Barentine FRAS · 2w
"Our measurements reveal an average brightness seven times brighter than mitigation targets cited in FCC filings and peak values over 200 times brighter than the International Astronomical Union’s recommended threshold (V magnitude 7). Now, AST SpaceMobile is expected to deploy Show more
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Prof. Sam Lawler · 2w
Does it actually help anything for me to keep saying the word "megaconstellation" at every opportunity? Probably not. But knowing that I have absolutely no power over what these companies do, and knowing that me saying "megaconstellation" annoys some satellite operator somewhere gives me a tiny b...