Results 1 to 6 of 6

Thread: NASA survey

  1. #1
    Member Howard B's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Location
    Scappoose, Oregon USA
    Posts
    571

    NASA survey

    NASA is trying to get an idea how many amateur and professional telescopes are being pointed at the sky at a given time. In their words, they're:

    "attempting to calculate the odds of one of these lasers causing injury to make sure the risk has been mitigated to an acceptably low level (e.g. lower than the odds of being injured by a piece of orbital debris from the satellite itself when it reenters Earth’s atmosphere someday, which is another risk we must calculate and mitigate to internationally-agreed-upon acceptably low levels)."

    The survey is fun to fill out and is located here:

    https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...ewform?c=0&w=1
    Howard
    30-inch f/2.7 alt-az Newtonian
    https://sites.google.com/site/howardbanichhomepage/
    https://sites.google.com/site/sprays...pemirrors/home
    Contributing Editor, Sky & Telescope magazine

  2. #2
    Member Ivan Maly's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Location
    Upstate New York
    Posts
    537
    Great, the ultimate in light pollution. To be blinded at 2 AM looking into the scope at the remote dark site. I have, of course, been very temporarily blinded by meteors and fireflies, but these guys seem to imply something far worse. Lower than the odds of being injured by a piece of orbital debris, when averaged over the entire population. Considering how few observe with large telescopes in the dead of the night the odds for those who do may not be that small.
    Ivan
    20" Sky-Watcher
    deepskyblog.net

  3. #3
    Member Howard B's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Location
    Scappoose, Oregon USA
    Posts
    571
    All the more reason for everyone to participate in the survey.
    Howard
    30-inch f/2.7 alt-az Newtonian
    https://sites.google.com/site/howardbanichhomepage/
    https://sites.google.com/site/sprays...pemirrors/home
    Contributing Editor, Sky & Telescope magazine

  4. #4
    Member akarsh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Location
    Sunnyvale, CA
    Posts
    376
    I wrote an email to the contact listed to ask if the trajectories of the satellites were public information, so that one could develop software to alert visual observers with large telescopes when there is a LIDAR transit. In fact, a good telescope control system might also refuse to slew a telescope to a region where there might be a LIDAR transit in the next half hour.

    One of the questions the survey asks is whether we've ever seen a satellite through our telescope fields. I guess this is common experience that it probably happens once or twice during almost every observing session!

    Clear Skies

    Akarsh
    18" f/4.5 Obsession dob "Romela"
    6" SkyQuest Orion dob
    Garrett Optical 25x100
    Homepage
    DSS Tool : Logbook Project : KStars
    The Astronomy Connection : Austin Astronomical Society : Bangalore Astronomical Society

  5. #5
    Administrator/Co-Founder Dragan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Location
    Chicago, Il
    Posts
    498
    Just completed it. Thanks!
    Clear Dark Skies,
    Dragan Nikin
    25" f/5 Obsession #610 "Toto"
    30" f/4.5 OMI EVO #1 "Tycho"
    www.darkskiesapparel.com

  6. #6
    Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Location
    Santa Cruz, CA...USA
    Posts
    7
    I also replied. These satellites provide very useful information on the earth and its environment. Obviously it is helpful if we do not
    get zapped!!
    Al

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •